Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures

With the high-profile implosion of FTX, risk has been in the spotlight. What does risk mean, how can retail and institutional investors mitigate it, and how should founders think about it? Our guest today is Evan Dreyer, Head of Risk Management at Tola, a fast, easy, and free tool for businesses to pay and get paid, however, and whenever they want. We talk to Evan about everything risk and how to approach it.About Evan Dreyer:Evan is the head of risk management at Tola, a financial technology company. Prior to that, he spent over twelve years at Credit Suisse, in both the risk management and investment banking departments. He is an angel investor and LP (including in Ripple Ventures). He has a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Chicago, and a master's in risk management from NYU.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 cash back 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:02:26 Evan’s journey into tech and investing07:01 Evan’s experience at Credit Suisse10:31 Why high risk situations keep happening13:04 The definition of risk and what it means to startups17:37 How early stage founders should think about their risks and address them21:28 What it means to not bury your head in the sand and address risk23:55 Risk through the eyes of an investor28:58 When deal terms mean to mitigate risk actually backfire31:27 Risks in public vs. private market deals35:22 How Evan adds value as an investor and LP39:22 Why Evan decided to leave Credit Suisse and join a startup41:47 What risk looks like to him now that he is a startup operator43:49 Evan’s biggest career lesson47:26 Thoughts on FTX and SBFFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Revolutions* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Matt Levine* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Drones* 📈- Favorite New Trend: Digital yoga* 📚- Favorite Book: Napoleon: A Life* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Don't take anyone else's path to successFollow 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

It’s always fun to reconnect with past guests and early success stories from our Ripple Community, and today’s guest is both, Emily Lonetto was a Tank Talks guest back when it was a small in-person event at our co-working space, The Tank. Back then she was the first leadership hire at our portfolio-company Voiceflow, now she’s the Director of Community at Webflow as well as a Venture Partner with us at Ripple Ventures. Emily has amazing perspectives on growth and community, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.About Emily Lonetto:Emily Lonetto is the Director of Community at Webflow. She is an expert marketer and growth expert that started her career at Carnivore Club, a subscription food box, and moved onto to Tilt, which was acquired by AirBnB, and then to Voiceflow. She did her undergrad 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 cash back 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:03:11 Emily’s journey to becoming a growth hacker and community expert05:40 Common challenges to growth for early-stage startups06:50 Differences between standard marketing and growth08:21 Her experience helping grow Voiceflow11:27 The importance of community feedback12:11 What growth means in a startup context15:14 How startups should think about growth marketing16:54 Growth Marketing tactics19:24 Emily’s Growth Marketing tech stack22:41 Analytics and testing that you should use to track growth24:20 Using negative feedback to help hone your offering25:26 How Emily has evolved as a community builder across her career28:24 Factors that can hamper a community31:35 How the Webflow community guided her even before working there33:11 Positives of having a strong community35:32 Misconceptions around community for early stage founders38:41 How growth in community is defined at Webflow41:05 Emily’s strong contribution to the Ripple ecosystemFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Reply All* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Lenny Rachitsky* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone 14* 📈- Favorite New Trend: The comeback of emo and alternative music* 📚- Favorite Book: Moonwalking with Einstein* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Change is made up of dozens of small iterationsFollow 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

It’s always great to visit another podcast, and we wanted to share Matt’s guest spot on the Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. 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

Our guest today is at that intersection of public and private partnerships here in Ontario, Canada. Brenda Hogan is the CIO of Venture Ontario, a $205M joint initiative between the Government of Ontario and leading institutional investors to invest primarily in Ontario-based and focused venture capital and growth equity funds that support innovative and high-growth companies. About Brenda HoganBrenda M. Hogan is the Chief Investment Officer at the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC) and has over 15 years of experience in strategy and execution in venture capital at the co-investment, fund of funds, and fund level investing.Brenda has held senior roles in corporate development, finance, and strategic investing with Bell Canada, EY, the Business Development Bank of Canada, and a software start-up. Brenda sits on the Board of the Canadian Venture Capital Association and Chairs the Membership Committee; served as Co-Chair of Canadian Women in Private Equity (CWPE); serves with the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) as a member of the Content Committee; and served three terms on the Board of Women in Capital Markets, serving as Chair of the Governance Committee. She also served on the Board of Governors at Dalhousie University and Chaired the Finance, Audit, Investment, and Risk Committee. Brenda holds an MBA in finance.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 cash back 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:03:00 Brenda’s journey to becoming an LP04:59 What it was like navigating corporate culture at one of the oldest companies in North America06:29 What Venture Ontario is and how it works08:02 How Venture Ontario Sources it’s deals11:39 Working with emerging managers with limited track record12:30 What makes a good fund manager15:16 Red flags from managers to LPs18:20 Positive signals managers can send to prospective LPs20:49 How Brenda focuses on becoming a better LP and adding value23:54 Investing in 202226:04 The Canadian Investing scene27:57 Risks and rewards she is underwriting for in 202232:23 Investment categories Brenda is excited about33:54 Strategies to mitigate risk in new commitments36:04 Best career advice she’s recievedFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: How I Built This* 📰- Favorite Newsletter /Blog: TED Talks* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Samsung Galaxy Fold* 📈- Favorite New Trend: Work function appropriate* 📚- Favorite Book: Shoe Dog* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Do stuff you like with people you likeFollow 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

What is a buyer persona and why are they important to your startup? Buyer personas are models of your ideal customer, but what is the best way to generate those personas, and more importantly, are those the right personas to model in the first place? Our guest today is Leena Joshi Co-Founder and CEO of CloseFactor, a company that helps build better buyer personas. We cover how companies can collect and use data to enhance their buyer personas to be more targeted and how CloseFactor assists in this process. We also talk about building negative buyer personas, and how startups can use all of this to their advantage.About Leena:Leena is the Co-founder & CEO of CloseFactor. She is an enterprise software GTM veteran with over 20 years of experience spanning product management, product marketing, inside sales, corporate marketing and business operations at Splunk, VMware, Redis Labs, Intel, and advanced AI company, Petuum.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 cash back 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:02:33 Leena’s journey before Co-Founding CloseFactor03:33 Leena’s experience at Splunk05:28 What it was like to go through the Splunk and VMWare IPOs06:15 Dealing with rapid growth and hiring sprees07:27 The opportunity she saw with CloseFactor10:13 Building the initial buyer persona for CloseFactor13:32 How companies can start building their own buyer personas16:05 What early stage founders need to think about in terms of selling today’s customers versus tomorrow’s customers17:20 How CloseFactor helps in building buyer personas19:33 Balancing customer discovery and sales20:54 Finding customer interviewees for research22:25 Defining negative buyer personas and why they are helpful23:56 How buyer personas can help with marketing24:59 Getting internal stakeholders aligned with each persona26:16 How CloseFactor helps distill down buyer personas27:49 Early success stories on CloseFactor30:56 How CloseFactor’s ICP and buyer persona has evolved32:47 Plans for CloseFactor’s recent raise of $4.5M with Sequoia and BogomilFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Invisibilia* 📰- Favorite Newsletter /Blog: CBInsights/Economist* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Phone* 📈- Favorite New Trend: Pandemic trend of emphasizing time spent with friends and family* 📚- Favorite Book: Sapiens* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: You miss 100% of the shots you didn't takeFollow 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

Mountaineering is a sport that draws a lot of comparisons. Climbing can be done as a lark or as a well-planned expedition. Sometimes even the best-planned climbs can end in disaster due to one wrong choice or factors outside the control of the climbers. And sometimes everything is perfect and an underprepared climber can achieve something special.At the end of the day, you need to show up and do the climb before you know the outcome.That same truth applies to venture capital and investing, and our guest today, Tony van Marken of First Ascent Ventures, marries both those pursuits as a successful operator, investor, and mountaineer.We touched on how Tony supports founders going through the emotional startup journey, and how to help CEOs during a company-wide layoff. Tony shares his experience as a public market CEO, and how the recent sell-off in Canadian IPOs is impacting his Founders.About Tony van Marken:Tony van Marken is the co-founder and Managing Partner of First Ascent Ventures. Previously he was the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vox Telecom Limited, a leading independent telecommunications service provider in South Africa. Tony is a former General Partner with XDL Intervest Corporation, a Canadian venture capital fund, where he led investments in the software and telecommunications industry. Prior to XDL, he was President and CEO of Architel Systems Corporation. Tony is an accomplished endurance athlete and a veteran of over 35 high-altitude mountaineering expeditions with over 65 summits. He summited Everest in 2005 to complete his quest to climb the world’s seven continental summits.Tony graduated with a B.Sc. (Computer Science) from the University of Cape Town and with a B.Comm. (Economics and Business Management) from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and has completed executive education courses at Kellogg University, Wits Business School (South Africa) and the Oxford Saïd Business School.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 cash back 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:02:45 Tony’s career journey to becoming an investor06:01 Perspective on the current downturn and how it compares to ones in the past09:12 Why today may be the best time to make investments11:06 Common mistakes founders make in downturns15:42 Why now is a good time for founders to raise prices17:12 Helping founders manage the emotional rollercoaster21:27 How founders can manage a RIF and layoffs27:35 Advice to CEOs considering an IPO36:51 Has power returned to VCs or do founders still have the edge38:25 Expectations Tony has for new investments40:52 What should founders be asking investors?44:18 Should founders pursue remote or in-person for their companies50:39 Tony’s mountaineering experiencesFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Beyond the Grid with Tom Clarkson* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: The Daily Maverick* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Garmin In Reach Mini-2* 📈 - Favorite New Trend: Travel and experiences* 📚 - Favorite Book: Never Split the Difference* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Never ignore the opportunity to learn from failure…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 road of a solo GP is full of highs and lows, and today’s guest Kirby Winfield has been through all of it. After working in the 90s tech and startup scene in Seattle, Kirby went on to found Ascend VC as a solo GP. We talk about his biggest lessons, the best advice he’s gotten, and dig into some of the stories from the trenches as an emerging manager.About Kirby Winfield:Kirby Winfield is currently the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, a pre-seed stage venture fund investing in marketplace, e-commerce/DTC, and B2B software startups in the Pacific Northwest.Early in his career, Kirby was a founding team member and operating executive at back-to-back tech IPOs, with Go2Net (GNET) and Marchex (MCHX). He is also a two-time venture capital-backed CEO, with AdXpose (DFJ, Ignition) acquired by comScore (SCOR), and Dwellable (Maveron, VersionOne) acquired by HomeAway (AWAY).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 cash back 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:02:45 Kirby’s journey into tech06:08 Lessons from the Dot Com bust12:21 Why founders should get to know public market analysts13:45 Kirby’s early experience as an Angel Investor16:07 Early exits as an investor18:11 Finding his first LPs as an emerging manager21:36 Why he viewed his age as a first time manager as an advantage26:37 Building a better startup ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest31:37 Kirby’s original investment thesis and how is has evolved38:19 Managing as a solo GP45:03 Things to avoid that may be red flags to LPs49:10 Navigating the seed and early stage markets in 202252:50 The best career advice he’s gotten as a GPFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Chuck D - Narrates the Band the Clash, Invest like the best* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Chad Sanderson substack - Data Products* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Garmin* 📈 - Favorite New Trend: Lower valuation caps* 📚 - Favorite Book: Led Zepplin, The Beatles* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Running Everyday Solves ProblemsFollow 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

Building company culture through a screen is a challenge more and more organizations are facing these days. The benefits of remote work will not go away, so how can organizations adapt and evolve to build a culture with everyone spread out? Our guest today is Jason Goldlist, CEO and Co-Founder of Venue, a remote-first meeting software for culture-obsessed companies. We talk about Jason’s dedication to community throughout his career working at amazing companies like Wealthsimple, and how he got Slack’s Founder, Stuart Butterfield and Accel Partners to back his startup.About Jason Goldlist:Jason Goldlist is the Co-Founder and CEO of Venue, he has been an operator with strong ties to community-building for the last 15 years. Prior to Venue, Jason was Head of Marketing and General Manager of Wealthsimple. He also Co-Founded TechTO, one of Canada’s most prominent tech communities. He began his career at McKinsey and did his undergrad at the University of New Brunswick and his MBA at INSEAD.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 cash back 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:02:37 Jason’s journey into tech04:45 Why he leans towards counterintuitive decisions06:30 Lessons Jason took from working at McKinsey09:23 Working in sub Saharan Africa10:57 His experience working at Wealthsimple13:30 Judging his early career in terms of experience in the moment and in retrospect15:29 Jason’s first role at Wealthsimple and how it grew19:18 How he worked on Culutre at Weathsimple20:05 Origins of TechTO23:17 What TechTO has accomplished27:25 How the pandemic and the TechTO events schedule inspired Venue30:18 Steps Jason and the Venue team took to help define the problem32:18 Why 2x2 analysis can sometimes deceptive34:20 Building Venue’s MVP37:46 How venue is helping build culture and community in the remote world39:58 ROI casestudies for Venue43:09 How Venue’s $4M seed came together47:21 The long-term vision for VenueFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Reply All, the show about the Internet and how we relate to it, told through the lens of amazing storytelling and mysteries. Start with episode #158, the case of the missing hit. * 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: The TechTO newsletter. Monday is community events and people, Wednesday is career advice and opportunities, and Friday is all about news and fundraising. * 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Stream Deck by Elgato. I use it to control my lights, speakers, music and a lot more.* 📈 - Favorite New Trend: Remote-first* 📚 - Favorite Book: Bonfire of the Vanities, In Cold Blood, and The Sun Also Rises* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson:Know thyselfFollow 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

Once is lucky, twice is good. And our guest today is good. Darrell Silver, Founder and CEO of Unbundle Studio, has sold two companies for over $100M and he’s using that experience to start investing. We dig into why Darrell decided to help create tech companies with underappreciated founders in a venture studio model and the mindset needed for running the studio completely off his own balance sheet.About Darrell Silver:Darrell Silver runs Unbundle Studio, a venture studio that launches tech companies with underappreciated founders. He is also a board member, advisor, and investor across EdTech and child advocacy.He co-founded+CEO'd+sold two companies: Thinkful (acquired by Chegg) & Perpetually (acquired by Dell).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 cash back 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:02:33 Darrell’s journey into Tech04:51 Darrell’s experience pitching Jason Calacanis and TechCrunch Disrupt08:21 Building Thinkful and selling to Chegg11:02 Best practices for acquihires and retaining senior talent13:00 Evaluating deals by weighing the best alternative15:46 Why you can’t BS your way through an M&A process17:32 Why Darrell launched Unbundle Studio21:41 The thesis behind Unbundle Studio23:25 Types of founders Unbundle is looking for24:22 Why Darrell is using his own money to start Unbundle26:01 How the traditional venture model doesn’t account for profitable businesses27:27 Darrell’s experience as an LP28:38 Why he sticks to his expertise when investing30:50 What he looks for when he invests33:06 The importance of good board members35:55 Building your networks37:05 What he learned from Mike Maples at Floodgate38:36 Redflags people should avoid when pitching him as an LP39:50 How Darrell adds value as an LP41:16 Why being a board member is philanthropic42:44 Advice for new LPs44:39 The best career advice he’s gotten as an LP45:50 Why he’s building a workshop with his dadFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Mike Maples* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Matt Levine* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Apple Watch* 📈 - Favorite New Trend: Google Home* 📚 - Favorite Book: Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Grinding It Out* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: How lucky he’s been to be presented with these life opportunitiesFollow 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

It’s tempting to think of Venture Capitalists as the top of the food chain, but in reality, we are closer to founders. VCs build an investment thesis and then go test that thesis, both in the fundraising marketplace and in doing their investments. Just like with founders, sometimes the marketplace demands VCs to pivot and change their thesis, sometimes dramatically. And always—always—VCs are held accountable by their investors, known as Limited Partners, or LPs. Our guest today is Jeffrey Rinvelt, his work at Renaissance Venture Capital finds him investing as an LP across many funds. He’s got some great insights into what LPs are thinking, and what the market may hold in the coming months.About Jeffrey Rinvelt:Jeffrey Rinvelt is a Partner with the Rennaisance Venture Capital. He was previously part of Ardesta, where he was a Director engaged in sourcing, evaluating, and conducting due diligence on investment opportunities, as well as monitoring and providing assistance to the companies in Ardesta’s portfolio. Prior to joining Ardesta, Jeff was a co-founder of GrapeVINE Technologies, providing Product Management and Marketing for their knowledge management product, eventually resulting in an acquisition by Sun Microsystems. Jeff was also part of the start-up team for MAXfunds.com, an Internet company providing complete coverage of the mutual fund industry, including hundreds of funds not available on any other site. In addition, Jeff spent five years with Ernst & Young’s Information Technology group as a senior consultant.Jeff is a proud trustee of Western Michigan University and also lends his expertise to a number of local non-profits.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 cash back 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:02:38 Jeff’s journey into Venture Capital and why he started in Michigan05:11 How he got through the 2008 financial crisis06:11 The original investing thesis for Renaissance Venture Capital08:59 Inspiration and innovations around Renaissance10:33 What makes a good fund manager12:20 Red flags for emerging managers14:52 What’s more important for a manager, track record or technical chops?17:10 How Jeff works to give value as an LP19:33 Building a platform as an LP20:29 What the current market is like as an LP22:50 Internal conversations around deployment of funds in 202224:05 Types of returns they are looking for in the current market25:38 Are preferred returns required to get LPs27:15 Advice to new LPs28:46 Why isn’t there standardized reporting around track record for Venture30:55 The problems with current 409A valuations32:55 Thoughts on opportunity funds34:29 Why Jeff stopped doing direct investments35:12 Philosophies around co-investing opportunities36:37 Investment categories Jeff is excited about38:20 Showing off results from research and investments39:24 The best career advice he’s ever gottenFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Cocaine and Rhinestones The History of Rock in 500 Songs* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Dave Pell’s Next Draft* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Raspberry Pi* 📈 - Favorite New Trend: Work from Home and Walk and Talks* 📚 - Favorite Book: The Hard Things About Hard Things* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Longterm games with long-term peopleFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episo

The term A/B testing gets thrown around a lot in startups, many use it to great effect, and some know they should use it, but never quite do. Our guest today is Chetan Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Eppo, a platform that helps companies run useful, reliable experiments by automating the analysis, diagnostics, and investigations, all on top of your data warehouse. We get into the power of A/B testing, how Eppo can unlock that power for startups of all sizes, and best practices for implementing them.About Chetan Sharma:Chetan Sharma is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eppo. Previously, he was Data Scientist at Webflow and Airbnb. Chetan worked in empirical healthcare policy, helping to craft metrics and incentive systems as part of the Affordable Care Act's pay-for-performance programs. He has BS and MS degrees from Stanford.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:02:25 Chetan’s journey into startups and data science03:46 His experience working at AirBnB06:56 How one of his projects at AirBnB became open source11:22 Chetan’s decision to take a year to travel before his next career move14:42 Why A/B testing is so popular at startups17:34 Some misconceptions around A/B testing21:31 Why companies struggle with A/B testing24:08 What happens when A/B gives inaccurate results26:38 Picking the right northstar metrics for your company to track29:32 How capital-constrained companies can use A/B testing to solve problems faster30:59 What Eppo does to make A/B testing better32:15 How Eppo works34:12 Why focusing your company to work on core products and not tools is important at early startups35:42 What early-stage startups can do to get more data38:04 The ROI of Eppo even in a recession39:39 The value-add of Eppo40:32 Customer case studies of Eppo42:43 Eppo’s new Cupid product46:13 Plans for the recent $16M Series A round backed by some of world’s leading data and product investors like Menlo Ventures and Amplify PartnersFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: NFL Podcasts, Hardcore History, Ezra Klein, Tyler Cowen* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter /Blog: Lenny Rachitsky* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Apple Watch* 📈 - Favorite New Trend: Angel Investing* 📚 - Favorite Book: How Asia Works* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: All you know is what you personally observe and what you personally feel, you don’t know intentions of others.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 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

How we organize our companies used to be a straightforward affair, pick a place, like a humble garage, have everyone show up at that place and build your widget, and grow from there. Even before the rise of the pandemic, that equation was being disrupted, and the question of do we even need a physical place to build together has been questioned. Our guest today, Eyal Lasker, Co-Founder and CEO of Flexspace is helping companies navigate questions around growth, community, and space. Flexspace is a platform that allows companies to discover, book, and manage on-demand workspaces with no commitment or upfront cost. About Eyal Lasker:Eyal Lasker has been a founder and operator for the last decade. He Co-Founded a video compression startup in 2012 before moving to Klarna in 2013 as Lead Product Manager and founding member of Klarna's consumer domain. He then had jobs at Otto and Uber, before landing at WeWork. He has a BS from Tel Aviv University and his masters from Reichman 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:02:37 Eyal’s journey to founding Flexspace04:56 How the IDF helped shape his career06:49 Making the jump to becoming a founder08:09 What lessons he took from his first startup09:16 Why team building is so important to startups10:05 Lessons from Klarna, Uber, Otto, and WeWork13:05 What working at hedge funds taught him to be successful at big-league startups15:02 What made Eyal decide to pull the trigger to start Flexspace17:26 How Flexspace actually works18:51 Why Flexspace is different than other predecessors and competitors20:14 How they coach landlords on how to use their spaces with data23:09 How employers should think about leasing space and offices moving forward26:02 Why other coworking spaces need a platform like Flexspace27:06 How Flexspace is helping solve repurposing retail space28:37 Data Flexspace is collecting32:22 Plans for their recent funding round led by M13, with R-Squared Ventures, Magenta Venture Partners, and othersFollow 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

Startups love to tackle big problems in entrenched industries, but when it comes to the biggest problems, like say the Global Climate Crisis, sometimes it can be hard to find a new way to solve the problem. Our guest today, Devon Wright, Founder and CEO of Lumo, a smart irrigation system that helps growers save water, improve crop quality, and reduce costs. We talk to Devon about what Lumo is doing and how other startups can help solve the climate crisis.About Devon Wright:Devon Wright founded Lumo. Our mission is to massively improve fresh water efficiency for humanity. Our focus is on helping growers optimize their irrigation to continue to meet our growing food demand with an increasingly volatile water supply.Prior to this, he co-founded Turnstyle Solutions and grew it to one of the largest local marketing platforms of its kind before being acquired by Yelp in 2017. He helped build and run the Yelp Restaurants division until 2022.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:02:44 Devon’s background and how he got here05:47 How capitalizing on opportunities has helped his career07:14 Challenges he’s faced as a non-technical founder11:05 The perils of outsourcing versus trying to make it work yourself13:26 How Devon found himself living on a farm17:10 Why the pandemic helped spur his interest in sustainable farming21:02 How Lumo came to be from Devon’s person need for a better solution to irrigation26:08 The prevalence of manual watering in 202227:35 Building the early prototypes32:38 How Lumo actually works33:54 Where Devon found his co-founders38:48 Why speed to market is so important to founding a company40:24 Lumo’s recent fundraising round led by Fallline Capital42:53 The longterm vision of LumoFast Favorites:* 🎙- Podcast: My Climate Journey (MCJ) * 📰- Favourite Newsletter/Blog: Wine Industry Advisor* 📲- Favourite Tech Gadget: Arduino* 📈- Favourite New Trend: Substack and direct content monetization* 📚- Favourite Book: “Dreamt Land” by Mark Arax and “The Water Paradox” by Ed Barbier* 🤔- Favourite Life Lesson: Follow your heart. Do what you care most about. Your passion is your biggest assetFollow 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

Startups and small businesses have a lot of advantages over their entrenched competitors, but one thing that big businesses have access to is forecasting and business intelligence. Our guest today is working to level that playing field, Spencer Dent is Co-Founder of Clozd, a platform that provides world-class consulting and technology for win-loss analysis. We help our clients design and execute effective win-loss programs that uncover the real reasons they win and lose—so they can start winning more.About Spencer Dent:Spence has worked with sales and marketing teams throughout his career. Prior to receiving his MBA from Duke, he was an operator that helped small financial services sales teams. After graduating, he worked at Bain with sales organizations across a variety of industries. He moved on to Qualtrics, where he worked to expand operations across the globe and introduce new channels.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:02:27 Spencer’s journey to Co-Founding Clozd04:04 The first sales experience that helped shape Spencer07:11 What he learned at Bain that helped his career09:29 Challenges and opportunities of early scaling at Qualtrics11:44 How 6 years of business school failed to teach him how to be a leader14:48 Why they decided to leave Qualtrics pre-IPO20:37 Typical mistakes early-stage startups make when building their sales team24:22 Why hasn’t anyone created win-loss analysis software before?28:23 Losing because of price is weak analysis and won’t help your organization grow32:20 What Win-Loss really means and what startup founders need to know about it37:25 How a post-loss interview should be conducted39:39 What data Clozd tracks above and beyond a CRM like Salesforce43:06 Why buyer-feedback is the gold standard over feedback from the sales rep44:38 Why they chose to include a managed service offering48:42 Why they chose to take on a Series-A financing round led by Greycroft along with Madrona and Album VC51:33 How the pandemic affected them and plans for the new fundsFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Jim Rome, Dan Patrick* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: The Clozd Newsletter * 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Airpods* 📈- Favorite New Trend: Win-Loss* 📚- Favorite Book: Showtime, Dreamland, The Looming Tower* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Work has to be doneFollow 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

With the ascendance of gig work platforms like Uber, Fiverr, and DoorDash, it could be easy to be lulled into thinking that the space is fully matured. But there’s a new wave of gig working platforms that promise to add in Web3 Technology and the ability to accomplish more complex work. Our guest today, Matthew Spoke, is the Founder and CEO of Moves Financial, a fintech platform designed to enable the gig economy in Web3.About Matthew Spoke:Matthew Spoke is the CEO of Moves, the Digital Credit Union of the gig economy. Matt is considered a leader on the cutting edge of future-defining technologies and has spoken at dozens of tech conferences and written for Forbes, FastCompany, Coindesk, Financial Post, and TechCrunch.Matt is a strong advocate for the social benefits of decentralized technologies and created the Open Foundation, a not-for-profit focused on advancing blockchain technologies. He’s served as an advisor to governments on the regulatory implications of new technologies like blockchain on the future world of finance.In his former life, Matt was working as a CPA with Deloitte, when he discovered Bitcoin and became fascinated with the technology.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:02:44 Matt’s journey into Startups04:44 The attention his early ideas received and how that was embraced07:42 Lessons he learned from his first crypto startup12:38 False competition and bad ideas in a frothy market18:48 How the gig economy has evolved since 2020 and the pandemic23:45 What surprised Matt most about Gig worker economy27:12 How the privacy lockdown on iOS has affected data collection for gig platforms30:29 What Moves does and how it works for Gig workers39:23 How Moves interacts with traditional banks and financial services45:50 Getting gig workers aware of their financial position and helps improve their financial health49:02 The revenue model of Moves50:57 Plans for their recent $5M Seed round led by Omers VenturesFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: All in, Curse of Politics* 📰- Favorite Newsletter /Blog: Lenny Airbnb* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: DJI Mini 2 drone* 📈- Favorite New Trend: Stock ownership by workers* 📚- Favorite Book: Inspired* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: If you’re the smartest person in the room, change roomsFollow 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

FinTech is both an undeniable tech movement, as well as, an ambiguous buzzword that founders can use for caché. So what is it and how can startups truly utilize tools from the FinTech world to give their own companies superpowers. Our guest today, Joe Keeley, is the Co-Founder and CEO of JustiFi, a platform that allows Vertical SaaS companies to add sophisticated FinTech to their service offerings and how that can save companies in processing fees and give customers more flexibility in payments. We also discuss how startups should think about choosing third-party service providers when entering the embedded fintech arena and why it may not be the smartest choice to build your own in-house payments team from scratch. They recently announced a Seed+ round led by our good friends at Crosslink Capital aligned with existing investors Rally Ventures and Emergence Capital.About Joe Keeley:Joe is the CEO and Co-founder of JustiFi Technologies, a venture-backed fintech business providing payments and fintech infrastructure and strategy for vertical SaaS platforms.Prior to JustiFi, Joe founded and grew College Nannies, Sitters & Tutors (CNST), the nation’s largest in-home childcare and tutoring company. He led CNST to over 200 franchises in the USA and United Kingdom (a milestone less than 5% of franchisors achieve) and over 13,000 employees. In 2016, College Nannies, Sitters & Tutors was acquired by Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE: BFAM), the largest corporate-sponsored childcare operator globally.He has been named the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of The Year”, the “Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year”, “Top 25 under 25 to Watch” by Business Week Magazine, “20 under 30 Who Will Change the World” by Citizen Culture magazine, one of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s “Young Entrepreneurs” and “40 under 40”, Glass Door’s Top 100 Companies to Work For, Minnesota Business 100 Best Companies to Work For, and Entrepreneur Magazine's top 100 Franchise concepts many years running.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 any time. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks - Use Referral Code - TankTalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:42 Joe journey to creating CNST04:19 How Joe embraced technology as a solution for childcare and tutoring05:42 Why Joe’s first company was bootstrapped07:51 Why Joe and his co-founders decided to launch JustiFi11:21 Solving the processing fee problems for small business13:06 The history of FinTech and embedded FinTech16:05 How smaller businesses can benefit from embedded FinTech18:53 Why startups benefit from outsourcing FinTech tools21:02 How businesses should choose an embedded FinTech partner23:45 Choosing a generalist vs specialist service partner26:40 Why being the best at what you do is the most important thing as a startup28:32 Why Vertical SaaS is JustiFi’s current target market31:48 What lowering fees has meant to JustiFi’s customers34:12 How bigger is JustiFi’s Total Addressable Market35:58 Plans for JustiFi’s recent fundraiseFast FavoritesPodcastThe BBC MinuteNewsletter/BlogMorning BrewTech GadgetSonosNew TrendBack to officeBookThe Giving TreeLife LessonWork Hard and Be NiceFollow 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

With the recent market pullback, growth-stage startups have to figure out how to best navigate today’s markets. In this episode, we welcome Margaret Wu, Partner and Lead Investor at Georgian Partners, a Canadian fund that invests in high-growth tech companies. Recently they have focused on the growth of applied AI, investing in Vention, a digital manufacturing automation platform in its $95M Series-C round; and in a $150M Series-C round for global HR software platform Oyster.Georgian Partners also publishes The Georgian Impact Podcast, runs the collaborative pre-investment CoLab program, and has developed a robust R&D team that leverages AI-driven solutions for its founders. Margo and I discuss how software can be the lifeblood of a well-run organization; how Georgian is currently managing its existing portfolio investments, and the incredible platform Georgian has built to help companies use data to deliver insights to CEOs and startups. About Margo Wu:Margaret “Margo” Wu is a Lead Investor at Georgian and is involved in due diligence, deal selection, and board governance for startups exploiting Applied AI.Prior to Georgian, she was a Product Manager for mobile marketing at Amazon, co-founded a biotech company, and served as COO at OneSpout, a local e-commerce startup. Margaret began her career in technology consulting at Accenture and holds an MBA from Cornell University, as well as a BSc and BES from the University of Waterloo. 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 any time. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:37 Margo’s background in technology and startups and her journey into investing04:20 How consulting helped Margo understand the building and scaling of companies06:05 Lessons learned from Product Management at Amazon10:25 Georgian’s investment thesis and mandate13:40 How Georgian found deals at the right valuations over the past year16:49 Thoughts on “Operating during a Downturn” and preparing for a crucible moment19:47 How Georgian is thinking about profitability and how realistic it is for founders to pursue23:01 Georgian’s acquisition strategy given the cheap opportunities in the public market25:04 Advice to founders looking for growth capital but are at risk of a flat/down round26:49 How Founders are responding to the current market conditions28:56 Does Georgian Partners time the markets?30:55 How Georgian manages follow-up investments in later-stage, pre-IPO firms32:00 How Georgian’s platform has tactically supported founders34:23 How the CoLab program works38:13 How the R&D Team can help portfolio and non-portfolio company founders Fast FavoritesPodcastAll-In PodcastBlog/NewletterWait but Why By Tim UrbanTech GadgetNintendo 64New TrendRemote Work/ WFHBookArt of the Start by Guy KawasakiLife LessonKnowing when to pivot and when to persevereFollow 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

Being an outsider these days has a lot of advantages. It can allow ideas to crystallize in ways that someone who is too close to an industry may avoid. Today we welcome Nate Pierotti, Principal of New Stack Ventures, an early-stage fund whose mission is to invest in outsiders and founders that don’t come from the same educational pedigrees or locations we typically see in the venture world. New Stack has been encouraging entrepreneurship in new places and innovation in new technologies and recently announced the close of their second fund of $42.6 million. In this episode, we discuss the mass exodus from the Silicon Valley, the effects of the pandemic and the recent market meltdown on VC firms, and the future of technological startups.About Nate Pierotti:With New Stack Ventures, Nate Pierotti has used his deep technical knowledge and invested in startups like insurance platform Covie and life sciences platform BTR. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Monarch, a sports robotics company. He received multiple patents for his work at Monarc, and was part of engineering and product design. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Iowa.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 any time. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:33 Nate’s background and his journey into startups and technology04:34 Nate’s experience with building his first startup, Monarc07:13 What differentiates non-coastal founders in the VC world08:20 Nate’s transition into venture capital with New Stack Ventures14:24 How entrepreneurs have resisted the pressure to move to the Silicon Valley 17:06 How New Stack Ventures keeps its founders from becoming complacent18:01 Finding and scaling management teams locally20:48 The future of outsider-built technologies and startups25:37 What the mass exodus from the Silicon Valley means for entrepreneurs28:00 Supporting diverse founders outside of the Valley29:10 How New Stack competes with other firms in the Midwest, and firms along the coasts35:41 How New Stack advises its founders and helps them access capital and opportunitiesFast FavoritesPodcastsThe 20 VCBlog/NewletterAbove the Crowd by Bill GurleyTech GadgetAirPodsNew TrendUnit EconomicsBookPredictably Irrational by Dan ArielyLife LessonTreating people fairly and with respectFollow 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

It’s been a year since Boris Wertz was a guest on Tank Talks, and oh what a year it’s been. We’ve seen NFTs and Crypto rise, fall, rise, and crash. And that’s just the last few weeks. We thought it would be fun to listen with new ears to this thought-provoking conservation with someone who has helped build the crypto space into what it is today. Through his position as an early investor in Dapper Labs, creators of CryptoKitties and NBA TopShot, Boris has been an early believer in the power of blockchain and crypto and he’s now setting his sights on climate change investing and the creator economy.Boris’ Background:Boris Wertz is founding partner of Version One and one of the top tech early-stage investors in North America. Born in Germany and based in Vancouver, Boris takes a wide-angle view to find great companies all across North America with a focus on the pre-seed and the seed stage in marketplaces, enterprise SaaS, crypto, healthcare, energy, climate.. He is a board partner with Andreessen Horowitz and is well-respected for his uncanny ability to find the next generation of leaders. Before becoming an investor, Boris built an online marketplace for used and out-of-print books in 1999, selling the business to AbeBooks.com where he became COO and led a team of 140 people doing $250mm in platform revenues. After AbeBooks.com was sold to Amazon, he moved into investing, first as an angel and now with his own fund Version One which launched in 2012.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 any time. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:27 The growth of DeFi as an industry03:48 How negative associations with the early ICO market has affected DeFi06:01 The opportunity Boris saw in 201709:32 The speed of innovation the crypto space11:14 How big the market for Ethereum can grow12:52 Valuing crypto platforms and protocols14:04 How Uniswap.com works and its power16:10 The lending mechanic in Ethereum18:58 New platforms like nexusmutual.io and opyn.co22:42 How DeFi compares and competes with another Boris portfolio company, Coinbase27:28 Has Boris bought any TopShot packs personally29:39 Selling his Cryptokitties investment to his LPs31:30 The future of cryptoart32:33 What value means with today’s meme-investing34:47 How his team decides on what is worth investing in37:50 Addressing Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger’s crypto critique40:08 Working with LPs as investment thesis evolves43:02 How portfolio company silviaterra.com is working to fight climate change44:34 Investing while remoteFast FavoritesPodcast:Invest Like The BestNewsletter or blog:stratechery.comTech gadget:Google PixelNew trend:The creator economyFavorite book:Albert Banger’s forthcoming bookFollow 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

One of the trickiest problems in the startup world is how to properly compensate your employees. It’s a delicate balance between providing competitive offers, retaining employees, and being wise with your funding. Our guest today is looking to help founders navigate these decisions, Thanh Nguyen, CEO and Co-Founder of OpenComp is building a platform that allows companies to evaluate how their organization's compensation data stacks up against the market and build fair offers, and qualify compensation requests from potential candidates directly against real market data.About Thanh Nguyen:Thanh is a leading expert in his field with more than two decades of experience in compensation and HR strategies. He has worked with thousands of technology companies, including Airbnb, A16z, Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, Figma, LiveNation, Lyft, Uber, and many othersPrior to OpenComp, Thanh was most recently a partner of Connery Consulting, overseeing operations, a team of management and delivery consultants, and business development. Thanh also worked as the first member of the Rewards team at Salesforce.com where he remained for nearly a decade, spanning various domestic and international HR leadership roles.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 any time. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:50 Thanh’s journey into a career in compensation08:46 Lessons he learned on how to grow a startup from his time at Salesforce12:30 Why Thanh saw the need to start OpenComp14:24 How OpenComp works and where its data comes from18:11 The volume of data OpenComp tracks and how their freemium model works19:22 How OpenComp weaves user data into a broader picture of the market21:44 Mistakes early founders make when building a compensation plan23:30 Why growth rounds can pressure founders to hire the wrong people24:57 Advice to founders that are struggling to compete for talent26:55 How to think about equity when building compensation plans29:48 Pros and cons of salary transparency at OpenComp and in the market in general32:38 How pay transparency can help guide companies that may only be salary-focused34:48 What Thanh advises companies to think about compensation with a hybrid work environment37:40 How OpenComp is helping to fight the great resignation and ensure employee retention39:30 How data from OpenComp is helping companies the importance of DEI42:52 Plans for OpenComp’s recent $20M Series A led by K5 Global, Time Ventures, 8VC, Mantis VC, and J.P. MorganFast FavoritesPodcastsAudio BooksBlog/NewletterApple News FeedTech GadgetApple ecosystemNew TrendPay transparencyBookBreathLife LessonEmbrace The GrindFollow 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

Retail investing, meme stocks, and finding new ways to bring underrepresented and non-traditional demographics into the investor class will be a lasting impact of the last two years. Our guest today, Ali Moiz, Founder and CEO of Stonks.com is at the center of that movement. We talk with him about what led him to create the platform, which allows accelerators and investors to Livestream demo days and founder pitch sessions. We hear the story of how he got the domain, how his history led him to this, and what he plans to do with his recent funding round which he raised obviously on Stonks.com itself.About Ali Moiz:Ali has been a successful founder for over 20 years. Most notably as CEO of Streamlabs, a platform to improve the streaming experience for creators on platforms like Twitch. He Founded Stonks.com in 2021.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 any time. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today! In this episode we discuss:03:21 Ali’s journey into startups and company building05:35 The biggest lessons he learned from his experiences with startups07:42 His early experiences with angel investments09:48 What Stonks.com is and how it works16:06 How the pre-seed and seed rounds of Stonks.com came together18:21 How Stonks.com short-circuits the fundraising process for startups21:11 How companies can raise capital on Stonks.com23:09 What Stonks.com addresses that other platforms are not28:16 How Stonks.com sets up for Demo Days38:40 How Stonks.com is infiltrating the traditional market41:08 Managing VC relationships offline42:30 Ali’s advice for acquiring liquidity on the secondary share market50:01 Building companies in and around financial crisesFast Favorites:PodcastThe All-In PodcastNewsletter/Bloga16zTech GadgetWhoopNew TrendDemocratizing access to asset classes that were previously closed (The Robinhood Movement)BookThe Almanack of Naval RavikantThe Cold Start ProblemLife LessonGrit/ PersistenceFollow 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

Fundraising can be one of the most daunting tasks as a founder or even for a fund manager like me. If you just google how to fundraise, you get millions of results, a lot of conflicting information and it can all be overwhelming. Our guests today, Leslie Fine and Jonathan Lowenhar are looking to help solve that for founders by being a trusted source of coaching and advice with their startup advisory firm, Enjoy The Work.About Jonathan Lowenhar:Jonathan is an operator who successfully built a $1B business segment for a large public company, guided the turnaround of a distressed $100M+ revenue business, launched and sold a venture-backed startup, and led a B2B SaaS business to global-scale.In 2015, he founded Enjoy The Work, a firm of expert early-stage operators who have combined their considerable skills to advise the next generation of startups to launch, grow, and reach scale.About Leslie Fine:In 2008, Leslie founded Crowdcast, and successfully exited the company in 2012. Following Crowdcast, she helped lead three more startups, and landed at Salesforce to help launch their first AI product. She joined Enjoy The Work in 2019 as a General Partner. She has a PhD in Game Theory and Behavioral Economics from Caltech.In this episode we discuss:01:21 Leslie’s journey into the startup ecosystem03:43 Jonathan’s journey into the startup ecosystem06:38 Why they had to leave her corporate job to return to startups08:48 What about working with startups that excited Leslie11:21 Why fundraising is so much more than building a pitch deck and hope isn’t a strategy14:36 Other things founders need to think about when entering a fundraise and why being defensive is the death of a fundraising effort17:52 Investors are looking for no, not looking for yes19:02 Entrepreneurs need to understand that investors also have bosses, so make their jobs easy22:14 Why fundraising is a sales funnel that deserves scrutiny at every stage of the process24:48 Being arrogantly likable as a founder during a fundraising process26:09 The four different playbooks for fundraising30:22 Having a support person on the road to fundraising32:00 The third rails of fundraising41:42 Managing emotions during the fundraise44:22 Warm intros vs. cold introsLeslie’s Fast FavoritesPodcastThe IndicatorNewsletter/BlogTomasz TunguzTech GadgetTheragunNew TrednFemale EntrepreneursBookAlice in WonderlandLife LessonIf it takes less than 5 minutes, just do it.Jonathan’s Fast FavoritesPodcastThe Bill Simmons PodcastNewsletter/BlogScott GallowayTech GadgetAir FryerNew TrendSoft PantsBookThe FountainheadLife LessonDon’t keep scoreFollow 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

Onboarding is a pain point in hiring, but also when bringing new customers up to speed. Not only can it be difficult to navigate as a consumer, but it can be difficult to produce the materials and tutorials in the first place. Our guest today is aiming to fix all of that, Jennifer Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO of Scribe, a platform that makes manuals a thing of the past. She talks to us about how her platform works, what it was like fundraising while pregnant, and how her background in consulting and VC prepared her for life as a startup founder.About Jennifer Smith:Jennifer Smith started her career in consulting at McKinsey. She left to join Coatue and then Greylock Partners, heading up their CXO Program. In 2019 she Co-Founded Scribe. She did her undergrad at Princeton and has an MBA from Harvard Business.In this episode we discuss:01:37 How consulting helped her become an investor03:01 Early experiences that showed Jennifer the connection between finance and tech04:56 Knowledge is not evenly distributed and how to tap into that05:47 Her experience at Greylock Partners and how it prepared her to be a founder07:54 Jennifer’s advice to VCs11:06 Fundamental problems large organizations face and how smaller companies can help solve them13:42 Employee onboarding difficulties companies face14:48 When Jennifer started thinking about launching Scribe17:16 Meeting her co-founder19:05 Why they built in stealth for over a year20:45 Early customer hypotheses’s that proved wrong22:03 How Scribe actually works24:37 Scribe’s cross-platform functionality28:26 Is video a good platform to help onboarding30:15 Use cases Jennifer is seeing for Scribe32:30 How she fundraised her Series A34:01 Some of her most helpful Angel Investors36:05 Why founders should push back against Lead investors to fit in more strategic angelsFast FavoritesPodcastPlanet MoneyNewsletter/BlogAllison PickensTech GadgetSiri DictationNannetteNew TrendThe 90’s aestheticBookWallace WattlesLife LessonGeneralists are overrated.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

There’s a lot of hype around AI—both its capabilities and the extreme predictions of its utility and potential harm to society. Our guest today is using AI to help reduce harm by detecting fraud at scale in the financial sector. Ronan Burke is Co-Founder and CEO of Inscribe, a platform that has a mission to save billions of dollars lost to fraud by onboarding trusted customers faster and finding bad-faith users quicker using AI.About Ronan Burke:Ronan Burke is the Co-Founder of Inscribe.ai, which he founded after graduating from University College in Dublin. He participated in YCS18 and Inscribe is trusted by companies like BlueVine, Petal, Fair, and Ramp, and backed by Y Combinator, Uncork Capital, Crosslink Capital, and Foundry Group.In this episode we discuss:01:37 Ronan’s path to founding Inscribe with his twin brother03:02 How they viewed startups growing up in Ireland04:44 Growing the startup ecosystem in Dublin05:20 The launch of Inscribe08:06 Deciding which brother was CTO and which was CEO09:52 Ronan experience at YC12:54 What fraud means to Inscribe and how the pandemic made their service even more urgently needed16:09 The ROI of Inscribe to onboarding customers and detecting fraud from preexisting customers19:29 The three steps Inscribe uses to validate customers21:54 How Inscribe searches the dark web for templates and other fraudulent activities23:33 How the volume of data helps their ML24:00 What a typical fraud case looks like25:28 The market size for fraud detection26:55 Competition to Inscribe28:00 What the sales process looks like when selling to large FinTechs30:19 Case studies for Inscribe31:53 How their fundraising process went33:23 Plans for the next few years34:20 Plans for a hybrid model workplaceFast FavoritesPodcastTim Ferris ShowNewsletter BlogSimon Taylor FinTech Brain FoodTech GadgetLogiTech Stream CamNew TrendHybrid WorkingBookPrincipalsLife LessonIf you care about something, double down on it.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 rise of influencer to VC is starting to hit its stride. This has been an evolution from celebrities like Ashton Kutcher to newsletter writers like Packy McCormick. Our guest today is a part of that trend, moving from Division I college football player at the University of Michigan to sales at IBM and Okta, and now Marell Evans, Founder and Managing Partner of Exceptional Capital, is a rising star in the VC world. He is making an impact through his connections to sports and other high-impact individuals and his experience in sales and investing.About Marell Evans:Marell started his career in sales at IBM and Okta. He moved into the investing when he joined 415 in 2017, an early-stage fund founded by Owen Van Natta. From there he moved to Softback to help with their incubation and investing efforts and launched Exceptional Capital in 2022. He graduated from the University of Michigan.In this episode we discuss:01:41 Marell background and how he started playing football02:25 How Marell was the first college graduate from his family03:27 Who gave him motivation to succeed at an early age05:00 How Marell views the struggles in his early life06:59 The path from footbal to the tech world11:10 Why high-level athletes make strong hires13:37 Leadership is born and honed through sports14:38 Marell’s experience at Okta18:11 What it was like working at Softbank21:28 Lessons he took from his time at Softbank23:50 Marell’s relationship with Draymond Greene and what they have learned from each other26:27 Why athletes going into VC is a techtonic shift for good28:36 How Name Image Likeness is changing college athletics and how his career would have been different if that was in place when he played30:19 The fundraising process for Exceptional Ventures and how he attracted high-profile LPs33:57 What type of support his high-profile LPs have brought to Exceptional Ventures34:57 How to get in touch with MarellFast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodcastBlog/NewsletterFortune Deal TermsTech GadgetGarmin Fitness WatchNew TrendEmerging ManagersBookOutliersLife LessonDon’t let your humility compromise your competencyFollow 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 hear a lot about building a community and creating startup ecosystems, but what does that really look like? Our guest today, Brendan King, Co-Founder and CEO of Vendasta has built both a community-focused platform and has helped build the startup ecosystem in Western Canada. Vendasta helps small and medium businesses create SaaS offerings by combining best-of-breed software vendors and the expertise of local media companies.About Brendan King:Before founding Vendasta in 2008, Brendan served as COO and a Director of Point2 Realty solutions, growing its membership to over 165,000 agents and brokers in 85 countries. In 2007, he was named one of the '100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders' by Inman News. Prior to that he founded and sold two successful computer retailing operations and also worked for Cameco Corporation as a Geophysicist. Brendan holds an Advanced Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Saskatchewan.In this episode we discuss:01:31 Brendan’s career journey04:39 Lessons he learned that gave him grit and stick-to-itiveness05:48 Why he and Vendasta are focused on the SMB segment07:15 How Vendasta helps serve SMB with a three-sided marketplace10:15 Pain points Vendasta addresses for SMB12:56 The mistakes he made and how they can solve problems for time-starved businesses14:28 Helping build a startup ecosystem in Western Canada16:51 The way Vendasta is adjusting to remote work19:50 Why resuburbanization is a trend moving forward21:52 How remote work is exposing Vendasta to stronger recruiting competition23:40 What Canadian investors can do to further accelerate the startup scene across the country28:02 What government in Canada has done to support Vendasta31:16 The decision of when to go public34:53 What other communities around the globe can do to jumpstart a startup ecosystemFast FavoritesPodcastAll InSaaStrNewsletter/BlogJames ClearDavid Skok For EntrepreneursTech GadgetNestNew TrendRemote Hybrid Organization DesignBookGood to GreatWorking BackwardsThinking Fast and SlowLife LessonBeing challenged is inevitable, being defeated is optionalFollow 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

Finding new ways for e-commerce to connect with consumers is driving today’s guest, Kelly Nyland, Co-Founder and CEO of Whym, to help brands and retailers sell more products via SMS and messaging. Whym has raised $4.3M to build a conversational marketing platform that allows a direct relationship between buyers and sellers using messaging as the medium.About Kelly Nyland:Over the past 15 years, Kelly has had a hand in building four successful tech companies, two of which have realized public offerings during her tenure. As CEO Whym, she has garnered the support and backing of well-respected Silicon Valley investors.She has introduced over 120 digital products, software, apps, and consumer electronics to market in 40 countries. Kelly has worked across a variety of emerging technology sectors including mobile VR / AR, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning and voice-enabled TTS / STT.She has been responsible for helping startups launch, market, and grow both in the US and overseas. Kelly has lead international GTM and sales teams for over 20,000 points of sale, architected partnerships with Apple and Amazon teams, globally, and established B2B software partnerships for education and developer networks.In this episode we discuss:01:19 Kelly’s background and how she ended up Co-Founding Whym03:42 How the Snap Spectacles launch went down07:14 Lessons she learned from the launch of Snap Spectacles12:14 The initial idea behind Whym16:25 Streamlining the conversational marketing channels21:32 The IP around conversational marketing and early test cases23:16 How the conversational marketing process works for the consumers25:04 Why text is a vital channel27:40 Early adopters of conversational marketing30:48 How Whym works for brands and retailers31:42 The pricing model of Whym and the ROI for brands34:37 How their recent funding round went36:27 Whym’s future plansFast FavoritesFavourite BooksVenture DealsThe InevitableThe Physics of BrandLife LessonPower of will and tenacity will get you further than you knowFollow 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 may be leaving a golden age of digital marketing, with the rise of Facebook ads, e-commerce and other small businesses were able to find their niche audiences at a fairly reasonable price. But changes to iOS have had broad impacts across many industries. Our guest today, Shanif Dhanani, Co-Founder and CEO of Apteo is hoping to throw a lifeline to marketers of all sizes with his AI-powered platform that helps e-commerce brands personalize their marketing campaigns by predicting what their customers will buy next. Their recommendation engine identifies high-probability upsell and cross-sell ideas for each customer and syncs those recommendations to email and SMS tools.About Shanif Dhanani:Shanif has been in and around the Startup world for his entire career. He was an early-employee and board member of a small startup in 2006 before moving to Booz Allen Hamilton. He went to Tap Commerce and was part of its acquisition by Twitter before he co-founded Apteo in 2019. He got his bachelor’s from the University of Virginia and his MBA from NYU Stern.In this episode we discuss:01:29 Shanif’s journey into startups and data science04:22 How Shanif views his own success05:20 Why Shanif is so public about sharing his life and journey07:08 How recommendations to consumers has evolved and improved over the years09:53 How AI and Natural Language Processing is improving recommendations13:19 Why e-commerce is waking up to the power of recommendations16:43 How Apteo works for e-commerce and some case studies21:48 What the recent changes to iOS are and how they are affecting e-commerce24:41 How Apteo can help fill the void left from the iOS changes30:17 How e-commerce sites can start with platforms like Apteo33:11 The longterm vision for ApteoFast FavoritesPodcastStartup SchoolNewsletter/BlogNeil PatelHomebrewTech GadgetAlexaNew TrendPeople leaving jobs they don’t want to be inBookThe Wealthy BarberLife LessonIt’s always about the peopleFollow 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 know that one of the most valuable skills that a founder can have is grit. That determination to succeed and take their idea from a dream into reality. Our guest today has a ton of grit and we dive deep into his storied journey from being amongst the early companies at YC to becoming a member of a recent YCW21 class. Richard White is the founder and CEO of Fathom Video, an app for Zoom that allows you to record and highlight, in real-time, your Zoom meetings so you can write your notes later or skip the notes completely and share clips from your calls with colleagues. Ranked #1 Zoom App on the new Zoom App Marketplace, #1 Product of the Day, and #5 Product of the Month for Dec 2021. Fathom also recently raised a $4.7M seed round from a number of great investors including the CEOs of Twitch, Justin and Emmet, Reddit, Cruise, Clearbit, and many more.About Richard White:Richard White has been a founder and deeply entrenched in the Silicon Valley startup scene for the last two decades. He was Product Design lead at Kiko.com, the startup that Justin Kan and Emmett (subsequent founders of Twitch.tv) sold on ebay for $258K. He went on to found UserVoice where he is still chairman of the board. He founded Fathom Video in 2020 and was in YC Class of Winter 2021.In this episode we discuss:01:29 Richard’s journey to founding Fathom Video02:48 Being an early-employee at a YC05 company05:27 Childhood experiences that helped shape him07:04 Why he decided to start a company inside the Zoom eco-system09:15 Why being in a “crowded market” didn’t scare away Richard from starting Fathom Video12:13 Getting comfortable with Zoom itself as a potential competitor13:37 When he first heard about the Zoom App marketplace14:53 Thinking about competition and moving users to use something better17:25 His process of customer discovery and interview to help define a product that was 10x better20:13 What questions founders should ask themselves before entering a crowded market21:09 Best ways to onboard customers so that they experience instant success24:38 Talking about investors about their crowded market26:49 When to launch and how long you should build in private28:34 Richard’s fundraising journey for Thrive Video32:22 Fathom Video’s plans for the future33:40 How to get to product-led growth quicker34:30 The status of Fathom Video’s relationship with ZoomFast Favorites:PodcastThe QuestNewsletter/BlogPassTech GadgetSamson Q2UNew TrendCrypto WinterBookObviously AwesomeLife LessonDon’t be afraid to cold email peopleFollow 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

One of the most misunderstood calculations a founding team can make is when to exchange equity for capital and when you should turn to Venture Debt. We are a Venture Fund, but we are also partners with our founders, and we know that sometimes the better option is Venture Debt. Today’s guests, Tony Barkett, Managing Director of RBCx and Rebecca Skvorc, CFO and Head of Talent at Nudge, talk through the Venture Debt process and when it works (and when it doesn’t)About Tony Barkett:Tony Barkett leads the delivery of industry-tailored capital financing, business advice, and solutions that go beyond traditional banking. And when he isn’t busy supporting the growth of innovative companies in Canada, he’s a sports coach for his two sons and an avid golfer. He started his career at SVB, and did his undergrad at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.About Rebecca Skvorc:Rebecca has 19 years of progressive and diverse financial experience. Prior to her roles at Nudge, she was an SVP at Wave HQ, she’s been in operations and banking for the last 19 years and has successfully closed US$55m in financing over 5 rounds. She got her bachelor’s at Wilfrid Laurier University.In this episode we discuss:01:16 Their journey into the tech eco-system03:17 What is venture debt and why is it issued04:38 How Venture Debt has evolved over the last few decades05:54 Venture Debt from an operator’s perspective07:51 Timing to take on Venture Debt as a startup10:41 Incentives for Debt providers to find high-growth companies11:26 How a company can know its ready for a debt-facility13:53 How Rebecca knew Venture Debt was the right course for her companies15:28 The starting points founders should consider when looking at Venture Debt18:55 Other risks founders should consider when looking at Venture Debt21:19 How Venture Debt is evolving for later-stage companies22:47 When should founders look at cleaning up their debt23:42 Can you use equity to solve a debt problem?24:38 Lessons Rebecca learned from her time at Wave HQ25:45 Picking the right lender for you Venture Debt26:53 How Tony has helped companies survive s**t-hitting-the-fan moments29:19 The importance of honesty and transparency with your bankers and investors31:00 Exciting things about today’s Canadian tech eco-systemTony’s Fast Favorites:PodcastTank TalksNewsletter/BlogTerm SheetGadgetiPhoneNew TrendGoing OutsideBookThe Hard Thing About Hard ThingsLife LessonTeach them to fish, don’t give them a fishRebecca’s Fast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodNewsletter/BlogTim FerrisGadgetiPhoneNew TrendTravellingBookThe EconomistLife LessonHold your loved ones closeFollow 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

With the disaggregation of traditional media, the popularity of influencers, and the unraveling of ad platforms like Facebook, creating a community through content has never been more important. Our guest today knows about the power of content and how it can grow into something world-changing. Austin Rief, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Morning Brew, an online media powerhouse that was founded as a newsletter in the dorms of the University of Michigan in 2015. Its impact and growth quickly became apparent and in 2020 it sold a majority interest to Business Insider for a reported $75M. Austin is also a solo capitalist at his fund, Austin Rief Ventures.About Austin Rief:Austin started at the University of Michigan as a Finance major in 2014, and he left 3 years later with a degree and was well on his way to becoming a media mogul. Co-Founding Morning Brew in 2015 and was originally the COO, he became the CEO in 2021. He also started a rolling fund on Angel List and parlayed that into Austin Rief Ventures, a seed-stage fund.In this episode we discuss:01:34 The early days of bootstrapping Morning Brew02:13 Early expectations for Morning Brew03:41 Lessons learned from the M&A process05:16 Why they decided to sell in 202006:24 What the internal conversations were like around the sale07:48 Why Austin decided to start investing09:28 Reasons why founders seek him out to be on their cap table11:58 Why he believes content and social media can help founders14:31 How his due diligence process works15:50 Favorite questions he likes to ask founders17:27 How he views portfolio construction19:28 Getting allocations in competitive rounds20:33 How he views founders with stacked SAFE rounds21:44 Why it’s okay for founders selling on the secondary24:00 How top funds will need to adapt to smaller investors getting pro rata25:05 Working and attracting LPs as a solo capitalist27:06 Austin’s skillsets that founder come to rely on28:15 The importance of finding a CEO coach31:31 What Austin is most excited about in the startup space34:48 Why it’s important to be in the best companies36:41 The future of Crypto and Defi and why he invested in Rare Circle40:26 Thoughts on the new YC deal structure42:40 What Austin has learned from his misses46:14 Plans for Rief VenturesFast Favorites:Podcast:Trillionaire MindsetAll-InNewsletter/BlogMorning BrewBen ThompsonPack McCormickTech GadgetEight Sleep MattressNew TrendThe feud between threads and shitpostersBook:Not Fade AwayWhen Breathe Becomes AirLife Lesson:Focus on increasing luck’s surface areaFollow 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 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