Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures

Investors from the coasts can fall into the flyover trap, looking only for opportunities in larger coastal Metros like Silicon Valley or NYC, but our guest today Chris Olsen, Founding Partner of Drive Capital, threw conventional wisdom to the wind by leaving a job at Sequoia Capital and moving to Columbus, Ohio to raise a new fund and bet on founders in underserved geographies. Since then, Drive Capital has grown to $1.2B AUM and its portfolio includes Duolingo, Udacity, Lightstream, Root Insurance, and Comply360.About Chris Olsen:A native of Cincinnati, Chris is a Co-Founder and Partner of Drive Capital, a Columbus-based venture capital firm focused on investing in world-class technology companies outside of Silicon Valley. Prior to founding Drive, Chris was a Partner at Sequoia Capital for six years and helped launch the firm’s first growth fund. Chris’ first job out of school was on the professional squash circuit where he quickly learned he was better suited to work with entrepreneurs.In this episode we discuss:01:36 How Chris’ time at Sequoia Capital shaped him as an investor04:52 Biggest winners and some of the lessons he took away07:02 What he learned from the misses during that time08:33 The importance of teams and iteration for early startups10:03 The aha moments of when he saw the opportunities outside of Silicon Valley14:32 The reality of being comfortable when you are starting something new18:20 How he found his co-founders and why he moved before the fund had closed23:52 Factors that Drive Capital looks at when investing in an underserved geography25:35 How new ecosystems are made and how institutional dollars flow into new cities27:58 Why Canada has been a focus of Drive’s recent investment30:19 How Canada’s founders differ from US founders and why immigration is Canada’s secret weapon32:42 Why Chris like founders to take big swings to create large enterprises36:02 The culture of speed that Drive Captial has built and how founders should think about working with them39:51 What Chris is excited about and nervous about in the current VC market43:23 How Drive’s business model has evolved over the last 8 yearsFast FavoritesPodcast20 Minute VCBlog/NewletterThe EconomistTech GadgetTesla Model XNew TrendGrowth of capital and companies outside of Silicon ValleyBookThe Old Man and The SeaLife LessonYou’ve got to fail until you succeed.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

The healthcare industry offers a tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs, and the Dental Instrusty, in particular, is experiencing rapid change and transformation with advancements in imaging and analysis. Our guest today, Wardah Inam, Co-Founder and CEO of Overjet is improving the accuracy of dental x-rays and reducing costs for providers and insurance companies. Overjet recently closed a $42M Series B with General Catalyst and Insight Partners, and has raised $75M in total venture financing.About Wardah Inam:Wardah Inam has been a robotics and AI researcher, operator, and now founder for the last 15 years. After completing her undergraduate work at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Wardah came to Boston to finish her schooling at MIT/Havard Business School for a Masters and PhD. After working in product management at Q bio, Wardah co-founded Overjet in 2018.In this episode we discuss:01:38 Wardah’s journey to starting Overjet02:54 How she came to the dental industry04:11 Finding her co-founders and starting the business04:58 The experience of starting Overjet at the Harvard Innovation Labs05:50 What Overjet’s mission is and how it works07:32 How Overjet got access to providers09:54 What Overjet does to solve pain points in the dental industry using AI11:58 How Dental Service Organizations are using to Overjet to drive efficiency14:56 The ways insurance companies are using Overjet and how they got their first insurance customers17:54 Their sales process now that they have momentum and trust in the marketplace18:47 Detecting suspicious claims using Overjet’s AI21:42 Going beyond cavity detection into tumor detection22:57 Overjet’s testing process and better than dentist bar they set for themselves and FDA clearances25:38 How Overjet is used by dentists as a communication tool to patients28:14 The pricing model for Overjet and how that evolved29:30 Learnings from their pricing experimentation32:13 Plans for their recent raise and the long term vision for OverjetFast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodcastNewsletter/BlogTBD ;)Tech GadgetAirpodsNew TrendDigital NomadBookHigh Growth HandbookLife LessonEverything you put in the world is a reflection of youFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

There are few experiences more loaded with lore and mystique in the western world than the Israeli kibbutz and being a soldier in the special forces. Our guest today is Lior Susan, Founding Partner at Eclipse Ventures, and he has lived both of those lives, as well as, being a successful founder and operator, and a non-consensus venture investor. Eclipse invests in founders who want to bring the full-stack approach to legacy industries and build digital bridges to the physical world. They have $2.6B in AUM. Lior’s investments include Bright Machines, Augury, Cheetah, Owlet Baby Care, June Life, Insidepacket, and Lucira Health.About Lior Susan:Prior to launching Eclipse in 2015, Lior was Founder and General Partner at LabIX, the hardware investment platform of Flextronics where he led investments in companies across energy storage, wireless/infrastructure, 3-D optics, additive manufacturing, and robotics.Lior also co-founded Farm 2050, an AgTech Collective, with Innovation Endeavors to address the global food challenge. Prior to LabIX, he was part of the founding team of Elementum, the Flex proprietary SaaS platform, which was later spun out. Before moving to Silicon Valley, Lior was a serial entrepreneur in Tel Aviv, where he helped build Intucell, which was sold to Cisco in 2012. Lior is a reservist of an elite Special Forces unit in the Israel Defense Force.In this episode we discuss:01:47 How Lior’s experience growing up in a kibutz shaped his worldview05:47 What being in the military and special ops taught him07:06 How he and his brother were able to turn a $5M investment in their startup into a $475M exit to Cisco in two years10:10 Why he joined an established company after his startup experience12:29 What he learned about supply chain management and why he started thinking about founding Eclipse16:02 Why Lior wanted to back founders looking to disrupt old-line industries and the early LPs that believed in him18:07 How Lior overcame his lack of track record as an investor when he first started Eclipse19:55 Eclipse’s track record before and after Covid21:28 Timing signals on when to invest in disruptive technologies26:29 Is updating the supply line just about automation and replacing workforce?28:54 How Covid is refocusing supplychains away from global suppliers32:08 Advice for founders looking to disrupt and sell into legacy industries33:35 Why he recommends to his founders to go after larger players first instead of SMB35:02 The importance of finding a design partner36:30 What Lior is telling his companies about how deal with inflation38:59 Why founders should avoid exclusivity40:40 The strategy around Eclipse’s two newest fundsFast FavoritesPodcastBridgewaterNewsletter/BlogWall Street JournalTech GadgetOwletNew TrendClimate InvestingBookThe Art of WarLife LessonWhen you don’t build, you don’t break.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

A great launch can change the trajectory of your startup, and one of the places you can have a great launch is on Product Hunt. So how can you set yourself up for success on that platform?Our guest today, Joaquin Roca, Co-Founder and CEO of Minerva, a Chrome extension that allows you to easily create training guides, and has had multiple successful Product Hunt launches. He talks through some strategies and what he’s learned about launching and running a startup over the last few years.About Joaquin Roca:Joaquín​ ​V.​ ​Roca​ is a seasoned organizational consultant with wide-ranging experience. In addition to consulting, Joaquín has founded two technology companies built to help managers learn to become great leaders (LeaderNation and the Scaffold). As an entrepreneur Joaquín has played every role imaginable from sales rep, to accountant, and from designer to software engineer.Prior to Minerva, Joaquín has an extensive background in teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, where he has designed and delivered courses on varied topics including organization development, statistics, research design, creativity, innovation, and leadership.He then became a consultant working with startups (e.g., SumAll, Eyeview, Datadog, Digital Ocean), large organizations (e.g., Hyundai Capital America, Pfizer, American Express), and government and non-government organizations (e.g., UNICEF, UNFPA, the Borough of Lansdale Pennsylvania).Joaquín did his undergrad at NYU and graduate work at Columbia.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part, Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:28 Joaquin’s journey to starting Minerva03:46 The most difficult manual guide he made prior to Minerva04:34 Minerva’s beta process and how the team knew they were onto something06:10 Early use cases and how they found early users08:04 The importance of iterating while defining your Ideal Customer Profile09:16 Why they decided to launch as a Chrome extension11:22 Surprising use cases that have popped up on the platform12:58 What they did prior to launching on Product Hunt14:53 The community’s response to the Product Hunt Launch16:10 What the “mission control” looked like during the launch17:42 Their research process prior to launching19:06 Minerva’s social media strategy on launch day21:20 Jaoquin’s general approach to social media and building in public22:32 How they closed their seed round after their first Product Hunt launch25:46 Looking back on how their fundraising went and how it forced him to step up27:52 Where they ended up after that first Product Hunt launch and what the immediate effect was on their business30:21 the biggest lessons from his Product Hunt launches33:16 How Joaquin is still trigger shy to hire a new head of sales and what steps he’s taking for long-term sales success36:01 Immediate plans for using their $4M Seed round lead by Bryan Rosenblatt Craft VenturesFast FavoritesPodcastShay AnythingNewsletter/BlogMario GabrieleTech GadgetGoogle PixelTrendTikTok as User Acquisition ToolBookIf On A Winter’s Night, A TravellerTeam of RivalsGetting to YesLife LessonDon’t take it too seriously, you’re not getting out alive.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

The notion that leaders are born and not made can feel oppressive to founders and others working their way up the business ladder. Leadership is isolating enough without the toxic mythology that you’re just supposed to know how to do from the get-go. Our guest today, Christine Tao, Co-Founder and CEO of Sounding Board, is working to normalize coaching for CEOs, Founders, and others who want to become better leaders. Sounding Board allows organizations to manage, scale, and measure coaching on one unified platform. Their AI-Powered admin tools and centralized data insights integrate with our proprietary, managed coach network to deliver coaching at scale. Sounding Board recently closed a $30M Series B funding round led by JAZZ Venture Partners.About Christine Tao:Christine co-founded Sounding Board in 2016 to solve the most challenging yet important part of her role as SVP of a fast-growing VC-backed startup: Leadership Development. Her experience as an operator at stops like YouTube and Tapjoy has helped guide at Sounding Board. She did her undergrad at UC Berkeley and her MBA at Wharton.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part, Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:33 The difference between a coach and a mentor04:51 The lightswitch moment when she knew she had to found Sounding Board08:26 Why she decided to turn her coach into her co-founder11:53 The value and ROI coaching brings to clients and organizations15:23 How the Sounding Board platform is scalable for future growth18:55 Solving the cold start problem with a marketplace21:13 The ICP for Sounding Board and what leadership means to Christine23:35 How they landed at that ICP25:10 How Sounding Board integrates with learning platforms27:02 The biggest challenges coaches and organizations saw during the early pandemic28:32 How Sounding Board standardizes it caching approach across organizations and internally30:32 The structure Sounding Board uses to contract and pay their coaches31:37 Overcoming jargon and other industry-specific knowledge32:34 The success and flexibility of matching coaches to organizations34:00 What the future of the coaching industry looks like over the next 5-10 years37:27 The broad appeal of coaching across the work/life spectrum39:30 Plans to deploy their recent $30M Series B lead by JAZZ Venture Partners41:51 The number of coaches on the platform today and the plans for growthFast Favorites:PodcastThe Startup Chat20 Minute VCNewsletter/BlogMark SusterFirst Round ReviewReforgeTech GadgetLogitech Video CamNew TrendRenting, not owningRentTheRunway.comBookThe Hard Thing About Hard Things By Ben HorowitzLife LessonYou should always just ask.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

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

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

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

On today’s Tank Talk, we have a throwback episode with Elizabeth Yin, Co-Founder & General Partner of Hustle Fund.We spoke with Elizabeth in July of 2020 and covered her journey in leaving Google and starting LaunchBit, an ad-tech platform that she eventually sold to BuySellAds, and how she eventually made her way onto the investment side with 500 Startups. We dig into Elizabeth's time in running the 500 Startups Mountain View office and how she was able to select founders to back after reviewing over 20,000 pitch decks. Next, we discuss the reason she started Hustle fund with her partner Eric and what their mission is for the next 25 years. Finally, we ask Elizabeth to explain what hustle means to her as an early-stage investor and how she assesses hustle when meeting founders for the first and sometimes only time before deciding on backing them with a $25,000 investment.About Elizabeth Yin:Elizabeth is the co-founder and managing partner of Hustle Fund, an early-stage seed fund. Prior to Hustle, she was a partner at 500 Startups and ran their accelerator program. She founded LaunchBit in 2011, and started her career at Google. She completed her BS at Stanford and her MBA at Sloan/MIT.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 Elizabeth’s journey to becoming a founder04:58 What lead to the acquisition of LaunchBit07:23 How Elizabeth got to 500 Startups and what their process was like there11:32 The economics of accelerators vs. venture capital14:53 Hustle Fund’s mission and why they launched17:41 How Hustle Fund defines ‘hustle’ and is there such a thing as too much hustle20:18 The difference between hustle and multitasking21:10 Qualities in startup teams Elizabeth looks for23:52 How Hustle fund supports founders and encourages them to not burnout25:54 Hustle Fund’s investment strategy27:42 Early lessons and changes from the pandemicFavorite Books:The Lean StartupThe Hard Thing About Hard ThingsPredictable RevenueElizabeth’s words of inspiration“Building a startup is tough, so make sure you dig deep and decide why you want to do it, besides the money, because it can really be your north star when moving through difficult times”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 term one hears to describe the venture capital market in 2021—frothy. What does that actually mean and what does it mean in the larger historical context of Venture Capital? We speak with Phil Boyer, a partner at Crosslink Capital since 2014. Crosslink was founded in Silicon Valley in 1989 and has institutional memories of the beginning and end of Dot-Com bubble 20+ years ago and the global financial crisis in 2008. How does the firm’s deep history inform what is happening today, what is the outlook for the future, and how can founders pitch their companies to funds like Crosslink.About Phil Boyer:Phil brings over a decade of experience as a technology investor with deep sector expertise within enterprise and vertical software (AI, cloud, developer tools, SaaS, security). He is passionate about serving as a partner with early-stage founding teams, with an eye towards helping strong technical teams build category-defining companies. At Crosslink, Phil’s investments include Armory, BetterUp, Iron Ox, Molekule, Overjet, Verodin (FEYE), and Weave (IPO NYSE: WEAV), among other companies.Prior to Crosslink, Phil was an investor with NYC-based venture capital firm Tenfore Holdings, with early investments in Optoro and Trulioo during his tenure. Before beginning his venture capital career, Phil wrote and published research on the technology sector at Credit Suisse and RBC, where he covered companies such as Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, eBay, Priceline, Yelp, and many others.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:02:49 The evolution of metrics founders need for later round financing07:34 Why Team is so important to investors at the series A round12:17 How growth velocity can be just as important as size of ARR16:27 What is Net Dollar Retention and why is it important to investors22:49 How to properly calculate CAC/LTV25:03 Deal velocity and speed to close as a metric28:17 Is it better to land and expand deals or to hunt for bigger deals from an investor perspective32:06 Conviction in your model is important and knowing what you want to build33:49 How the speed of venture rounds is affecting the market and larger considerations for founders36:46 How Crosslink is dealing with the market39:55 The Crosslink Alpha network and how it brings value to its foundersFast FavoritesAcquiredHow I Built ThisNewsletterWhat’s Hot in Enterprise IT by Ed SimTech GadgetAirpodsTrendxOpsBookThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzLife LessonThe only thing that stays constant is change.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

Ecommerce and auctions for physical goods is a maturing space in the online world, but when you want to sell a business itself or a digital good it is much less evolved. Our guest today, Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, is working to change that. Flippa has a suite of tools on its platform to help streamline these transactions and help buyers and sellers with these sometimes complicated transactions. They recently completed an $11M Series A raise led by OneVentures to expand their buying and selling options and to offer new ways to support the community.About Blake Hutchison:Blake leads the team at Flippa, the leading marketplace globally to buy and sell sites, stores, and digital properties. Flippa was started in Melbourne in 2009 and he joined the team in 2018. Prior to Flippa, Blake held roles at various companies, including Xero, Good44, and Lonely Planet.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:03:15 The current state of online marketplaces and why they have seen such explosive growth04:15 How the marketplace worked prior to Flippa07:04 What is the right size of deal for a site like Flippa09:36 What buying and selling actually is like when using Flippa13:39 How Flippa helps qualify buyers to help maximize sellers time15:22 Other ways Flippa brings trust into the marketplace16:42 Why most sellers are not prepared to sell at the beginning of the process19:02 Why digital marketplaces like Flippa are more trustworthy than private sellers20:10 Statistics from recent sales on Flippa23:57 Are rollup funds and other institutional buyers using Flippa24:57 How Flippa differentiates itself from other competition29:42 How Flippa fits into the early stage VC model31:02 Future features for Flippa32:44 How Flippas large user base is an asset for the company and community as a whole34:12 Plans for crypto on Flippa34:49 What their $11M Series A will mean to themFast FavoritesPodcastBusiness WarsNewsletter/BlogInvesting.ioGadgetiPhoneTrendNFTsBlack Box ThinkingLife LessonDon’t peak when you’re 18.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

Podcasting as a medium has been around for close to 20 years, and it has become a vibrant channel of community and connection with little regard for gatekeepers and constraints. Which is wonderful for something like Tank Talks, but less so for communicating non-public and sensitive internal information to employees. Our guest today, JP Gooderham, founder and CEO of Storyboard, is helping companies to use podcasting as a safe, secure, and transparent to way talk to each other and help overcome the physical distance of remote work through podcasts.About JP Gooderham:JP started at Google when he graduated from Tulane University in 2013, he worked his way up the ranks to become Global Product Lead and decided to found Storyboard in 2019. In 2020, Storyboard raised a $4.5M seed round lead by CRV and joined by Harry Stebbings of 20MinuteVC, Operator Partners, Slack Fund, Dave Ambrose, and Matt Ziskie.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:02:56 The challenges of employee engagement in the landscape of remote work04:56 Ways companies are using Storyboard to reach distributed workforces08:14 Use cases for Storyboard and audio has a way to build and maintain culture11:03 The affect of the pandemic on adoption of platforms like Storyboard13:32 How fast it takes for a company to fully adopt Storyboard into their internal communication15:59 Turning listeners into creators and driving ROI18:42 Storyboard’s playbook for upping ROI to their customers22:54 Diving into social audio tools beyond podcasting25:31 How secure is audio from outside listeners27:36 Case studies of companies using Storyboard to solve communication challenges30:53 How Storyboard is different from traditional Learning and Development33:54 How bottom up content is the future of employee communication and training37:15 Why Harry Stebbings decided to make his first investment in the podcasting spaceFast FavoritesPodcastBeyond The GridNewsletter/BlogNewcomerGadgetWhoopTrendAudioBookShoe Dog by Phil KnightLife LessonEat the frog firstFollow 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

Voice has long been the final frontier of computing interfaces, and now with the technology of smart speakers and other voice-enabled technologies we are finally able to access what science fiction has been writing about for decades. Our guest today, Braden Ream, founder and CEO of Voiceflow, is helping create that future. Voiceflow, then known as Storyflow, was one of the first portfolio companies backed by Ripple Ventures. Back then it was a platform that helped build skills on Alexa, but has since grown to become the go-to platform for voice and chat-based interfaces and is being used by global Fortune 500 companies like USAA, McDonalds & BMW.About Braden Ream:Braden Ream is the Co-Founder and CEO of Voiceflow, a platform that helps teams design, prototype and launch voice & chat assistants. Founded in 2018, Voiceflow currently powers 300M monthly messages and is deployed across 75,000 teams. Prior to Voiceflow, Braden worked at RBC and founded a social media app.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:03:12 The history of voice tech leading to Voiceflow09:32 Why Alexa, Siri, and other voice-enabled platforms are succeeding where prior platforms have failed14:02 How the pandemic has helped shape the voice tech industry16:36 The other factors pushing forward voice tech21:42 How the voice apps are the new landing pages and the next internet25:23 Becoming a standard toolset for developing voice interfaces31:32 Addressing privacy concerns around voice tech36:02 How wake words work on Alexa and other platforms38:29 Plans for their recent raise from Felics Ventures, Ripple Ventures, True Ventures, Craft Ventures and othersFast Favorites:PodcastEconomics ExplainedNewsletter/BlogPaul GrahamTech GadgetiPad/Apple PencilNew TrendChessBookCrossing the ChasmBlue Ocean StrategyLife LessonThe world is run by people no smarter than you.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

Digital marketing is increasingly important to the success of every business, but it’s a dynamic industry, seeing major disruptions this year with the change to tracking brought by iOS 14. Our guest, Dan Pantelo, founder and CEO of Marpipe, is helping marketers figure out what’s actually working through scalable A-B testing and performance marketing with his platform Marpipe.We talk to Dan about the need for better testing, the current state of MarTech, and his recent $8M series A raise led by Stage 2 Capital along with ourselves at Ripple, Samsung Ventures, Laconia Capital Group, and others.About Dan Pantelo:Dan started out as a street salesman in some of NYC's lowest-income neighborhoods selling electronics on street corners. He went on to found Pantelo Group, an agency that quickly grew to $2M in monthly campaign spend. He founded Marpipe in 2019. Dan did his undergrad at Binghampton University.A word from our sponsor:For anyone that is lucky enough to be a part of building startups, we’ve all seen that mad-rush to answer extensive security questionnaires and implement SOC 2 controls the moment that big whale of a client is on the hook in order to not lose the deal. Which unfortunately ends up swallowing the entire organization's time and resources in the hopes to land that whale, right? Lucky for us at Ripple, we have partnered with compliance automation provider Drata. Drata saves our portfolio companies from these same issues when it comes to effectively proving a strong, ongoing security posture and achieving frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.Drata allows startups to put Security and Compliance on Autopilot. Companies using Drata experience an average time savings of 85% when compared to running the SOC 2 process manually. Build trust with customers by proving your commitment to security, and maintain continuous compliance in between your audits. Don’t take it from us, Drata works with all kinds of startups like ClearCo, Lemonade, FullStory, Slice and countless others. They're backed by top venture funds such as Okta Ventures and GGV, and are currently G2's number one ranked cloud compliance software provider for customer satisfaction. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Drata and take advantage of a 15% discount offer and waived implementation fees by visiting drata.com/tanktalks to get setup today.In this episode we discuss:03:20 How personalization in advertising, data, and customization have evolved over the years since advertisers were forced online05:48 Every company is now a marketing company with a subject matter expertise09:28 Other challenges digital marketers face and how they are overcoming them11:30 How brands are using technology to harness User Generated Content (UGC)15:09 Why companies should be focused more on performance marketing20:16 The traditional ad creation process vs. the process with Marpipe24:27 Why creative is now more important with better tracking and recent changes to Facebook27:11 Typical ROI Marpipe customers are seeing31:14 the Marpipe target customer35:12 How Marpipe can use data to decipher trends and what works for specific clients36:46 The future of performance-based marketing39:22 Plans for the $8M Series A raiseFast FavoritesPodcastHow to Take Over The WorldNewsletter/BlogBanklessTech GadgetAirpod ProNew TrendDAOsBookBlack Swan by by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Life LessonOnly worry about things in your direct controlFollow 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 market for cars in 2021 has been one of the most pandemic-affected markets. The supply of both new and used cars has never been tighter and our guest today is seeing it from all sides. Dan Park is the CEO of Clutch, Canada's first and largest online car retailer. We talk to Dan about the automotive industry, his path to becoming CEO, and about his plans for the $60M he recently raised from Canaan Partners, FJ Labs, and Real Ventures.About Dan Park:Dan is CEO of Clutch, an online platform for car buying and ownership. Prior to Clutch, Dan was GM & Head of Uber Eats Canada. During his time at Uber, Dan led the growth of Uber's food delivery platform in Canada. Previously, Dan was a Venture Partner at Azure Capital Partners and led the firm’s Canadian investment efforts.A word from our sponsor:For anyone that is lucky enough to be a part of building startups, we’ve all seen that mad-rush to answer extensive security questionnaires and implement SOC 2 controls the moment that big whale of a client is on the hook in order to not lose the deal. Which unfortunately ends up swallowing the entire organization's time and resources in the hopes to land that whale, right? Lucky for us at Ripple, we have partnered with compliance automation provider Drata. Drata saves our portfolio companies from these same issues when it comes to effectively proving a strong, ongoing security posture and achieving frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.Drata allows startups to put Security and Compliance on Autopilot. Companies using Drata experience an average time savings of 85% when compared to running the SOC 2 process manually. Build trust with customers by proving your commitment to security, and maintain continuous compliance in between your audits. Don’t take it from us, Drata works with all kinds of startups like ClearCo, Lemonade, FullStory, Slice and countless others. They're backed by top venture funds such as Okta Ventures and GGV, and are currently G2's number one ranked cloud compliance software provider for customer satisfaction. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Drata and take advantage of a 15% discount offer and waived implementation fees by visiting drata.com/tanktalks to get setup today.In this episode we discuss:02:44 How the auto industry is evolving and why now is a great time for disruption04:56 The effect of the pandemic on modernizing the automotive industry and how its effected supply and demand for cars07:39 How consumer behavior during the pandemic pushed forward app adoption09:18 What the enduring lessons from the pandemic will be for the automotive industry10:30 Why the dealership model is ready for disruption11:42 How established players in the industry are fighting back against being disrupted from outsiders13:18 Breaking down the existing legal structures between dealerships and automotive brands16:16 How Clutch is using their data to analyze the aftermarket and used car market18:59 Why Clutch is a better way to buy a used car20:43 Real-world lessons Dan and his team have had to make while building Clutch22:06 How Clutch has captured market share23:18 How Dan defines Clutch’s company culture24:26 Why Dan left Uber Eats to become the CEO of Clutch26:46 Plans for Clutch’s recent $60M raiseFast Favorites:Favourite PodcastHow I Built ThisMasters Of ScaleRevisionist HistoryThis American LifeBlog/NewsletterThe PeakTech GadgetGoPro MaxTrendCanada’s startup sceneBookShoe Dog by Phil KnightFollow 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

Our guest today, Gale Wilkinson, founder and managing director of Vitalize Venture Capital, is working to change how we work, how we learn, and how people can access investing in startups.Vitalize is known for investing in the future of work and the future of learning startups. They typically invest $250K-$1.5M at the pre-seed and seed stages. Portfolio companies include Placer, The Mom Project, Toucan, Zero Grocery, Zingtree, hiitide, and many more. They have also recently launched a platform that allows non-qualified investors to invest in start-ups before they hit the public markets.About Gale Wilkinson:Gale started in analyst roles at Nielsen and Orbitz before moving into investing in 2012 by founding Irish Angels, a network of angel investors affiliated with the University of Norte Dame. In 2017 she launched a formal fund, Vitalize Venture Capital. She did her undergrad at Notre Dame and got her MBA at the University of Chicago. She is currently a member of the Kauffman Fellows class of 2023.A word from our sponsor:For anyone that is lucky enough to be a part of building startups, we’ve all seen that mad-rush to answer extensive security questionnaires and implement SOC 2 controls the moment that big whale of a client is on the hook in order to not lose the deal. Which unfortunately ends up swallowing the entire organization's time and resources in the hopes to land that whale, right? Lucky for us at Ripple, we have partnered with compliance automation provider Drata. Drata saves our portfolio companies from these same issues when it comes to effectively proving a strong, ongoing security posture and achieving frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.Drata allows startups to put Security and Compliance on Autopilot. Companies using Drata experience an average time savings of 85% when compared to running the SOC 2 process manually. Build trust with customers by proving your commitment to security, and maintain continuous compliance in between your audits. Don’t take it from us, Drata works with all kinds of startups like ClearCo, Lemonade, FullStory, Slice and countless others. They're backed by top venture funds such as Okta Ventures and GGV, and are currently G2's number one ranked cloud compliance software provider for customer satisfaction. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Drata and take advantage of a 15% discount offer and waived implementation fees by visiting drata.com/tanktalks to get setup today.In this episode we discuss:03:26 Why the future of work is such an important area of Gale’s investing07:37 Is future of work just a code name for automation09:23 How remote work and gig economy interact with each other10:42 What Vitalize is excited about with Future of Work13:23 How the metaverse and online will mix with real-world opportunities14:03 Overlooked opportunities in the future of workspace15:24 The ethical questions around working for multiple employers16:39 Areas Gale is wary of in the future of work19:10 Areas in the creator economy Vitalize is looking to bet on20:54 Future of learning and where college degrees will be in the coming years22:40 How the pandemic has affected the future of work and the future of learning23:32 Opening up Venture to populations that have been historically excluded from investing24:48 Gale’s goal for Vitalize and how founders and investors can connect25:26 Gale’s secret to being so great on TwitterFast favourites:PodcastVenture UnlockedNewsletter/BlogAxiosTech GadgetHer PhoneNew TrendEco-friendly packagingBookThe Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem by Brad FeldFollow 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

As we’ve seen from the last two years, BioTech holds immense promise for the future but brings along challenges as an investor into the space. Today we have a lively discussion with two sides of the BioTech investing world, Peter van der Velden, General Partner and Managing director of Lumira Ventures, and Anthony Mouchantaf, Director, Venture Capital at RBCx.About Anthony Mouchantaf:As Director of Venture Capital with RBCx, Anthony works closely with partners across RBC on the bank’s venture investment strategy and leads the venture fund finance group. Prior to joining RBC Anthony was a VC-backed startup founder and a venture capital investor with OMERS Ventures, based out of the fund’s London and Toronto offices.About Peter van der Velden:With 28 years of investment and operating experience, Peter has participated in building companies from start-up through to expansion in the life sciences, information technology, and consumer sectors. Peter’s experience includes: Founder of a boutique merchant bank focused on private IT-based companies, Head of Investment Banking for a boutique investment bank focused on the public IT-based companies, Partner in a buyout partnership targeting retail and consumer-centric businesses; Vice President Business Development for a venture capital-backed drug delivery company; and an Associate role at Canada’s then-largest venture capital firm. Peter started his working career with Canada’s largest independent vaccine manufacturer.A word from our sponsor:For anyone that is lucky enough to be a part of building startups, we’ve all seen that mad-rush to answer extensive security questionnaires and implement SOC 2 controls the moment that big whale of a client is on the hook in order to not lose the deal. Which unfortunately ends up swallowing the entire organization's time and resources in the hopes to land that whale, right? Lucky for us at Ripple, we have partnered with compliance automation provider Drata. Drata saves our portfolio companies from these same issues when it comes to effectively proving a strong, ongoing security posture and achieving frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001.Drata allows startups to put Security and Compliance on Autopilot. Companies using Drata experience an average time savings of 85% when compared to running the SOC 2 process manually. Build trust with customers by proving your commitment to security, and maintain continuous compliance in between your audits. Don’t take it from us, Drata works with all kinds of startups like ClearCo, Lemonade, FullStory, Slice and countless others. They're backed by top venture funds such as Okta Ventures and GGV, and are currently G2's number one ranked cloud compliance software provider for customer satisfaction. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Drata and take advantage of a 15% discount offer and waived implementation fees by visiting drata.com/tanktalks to get setup today.In this episode we discuss:03:32 Peter’s journey to becoming a BioTech investor06:04 What the Canadian BioTech scene was like 10 years ago07:36 How Anthony convinced the team at RBCx to take BioTech seriously08:52 The pandemic’s role in convincing LPs to take BioTech seriously11:33 Peter’s take on why institutional investors have started to take BioTech investing more seriously15:09 How life sciences has more liquidity than traditional tech sectors17:07 How the life sciences market has matured over the last 10 years18:21 Insight into how investment committees at institutional investors work and how they look at biotech and life sciences23:26 Why life sciences can be intimidating to traditional investors30:57 What needs to happen to get Canadian investors more comfortable with investing in BioTech35:15 Why making unicorns isn’t everything in investing38:09 What value RBCx brings to the table besides capital41:40 How to manage LP communications in the BioTech space48:13 How Canada can become a global life sciences powerhouseFast FavoritesPodcastAnthonyThis is Actually HappeningPeterMasters of ScaleAmerican InnovationsNewsletter/BlogAnthonyVisual CapitalistPeterStat NewsTech GadgetAnthonyOura RingPeterApple WatchTrendAnthonyTikTokPeterWork-Life Balance from remote workBookAnthonyThe Federalist PapersPeterAtlas Shrugged by Ayn RandFollow 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

Data security is a huge concern, and a way to prove you take data security seriously is by obtaining a SOC 2 certificate. When obtained, SOC 2 is the gateway to larger enterprise contracts for SaaS companies, but the process of obtaining it can be labor-intensive, costly, and confusing. Drata was born to help streamline this process. We talk with Adam Markowitz, co-founder and CEO of Drata, to talk through SOC 2 and what Drata does for its customers.About Adam Markowitz:Adam is a former aerospace engineer who worked on rocket engines for NASA’s next-generation space launch vehicle as well as the Space Shuttle Main Engine. He went on to be the founder and CEO of Portfolium (Acquired by Instructure – 2019), proudly serving millions of students and grads from over 3,600 colleges and universities. He co-founded Drata in 2020 and recently closed a $25M Series A with GGV Capital, SVCI - Silicon Valley CISO Investments, Okta Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, and Leaders Fund.In this episode we discuss:01:58 What does SOC 2 Compliance and why is it so hard to achieve?05:03 The SOC 2 process with and without Drata06:48 Why SOC 2 is a growing concern for startups08:22 Is SOC 2 standard for B2B companies?09:53 What’s the first thing you should know if you’re asked for a SOC2 report?12:12 The difference between SOC 2 Type I and SOC2 Type II13:07 What the best case turnaround time for a SOC 2 Type I report13:48 Why many companies do a SOC 2 Type I on the way to get a SOC 2 Type II14:43 What type on content is in a SOC 2 report16:43 How founders should think about SOC 2 requests from clients18:25 How can startups instill a culture of cybersecurity20:59 Who should manage the SOC 2 process at smaller startups23:07 What Drata does to help simplify and automate the SOC 2 process26:13 What is the overlap between SOC 2 and HIPPA27:23 When is the right time to add a CISO position to a startup?28:50 Drata’s traction and recent Series A financingFast FavoritesPodcastMasters of ScaleNewsletter/BlogTed TalksGadgetAirpodsTrendHybrid/Remote workBookExtreme Ownership: How the US Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko WilinkRelentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim Grover and Shari WenkFollow 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

Subscriptions are taking over the world, but it can often be a challenge for smaller e-commerce sites to add and service this new sector on top of their existing business, Upscribe is here to fill that niche for Shopify shops and other e-commerce platforms. We talk with Dileepan Siva, founder and CEO, about what he’s building, the e-commerce landscape, and how to reduce churn and increase loyalty through smarter subscription offerings.About Dileepan Siva:Dileepan grew up across three continents and four countries before the age of ten. His dream job growing up was to be the UN Secretary General. After graduating from UC Berkeley and getting an MBA from Harvard, he went on to be an advisor for the US and UN in war-torn countries.After his time in government and politics, he moved to consulting and tech operations at Ebay, and Twitter, before becoming a founder for himself. Upscribe was founded in 2019 and recently closed a $4M seed round lead by Uncork Capital.In this episode we discuss:01:24 The evolution of the subscription economy03:09 What has caused the shift to subscriptions?06:13 The technologies that have helped enable subscriptions08:25 How companies can start into subscriptions10:27 Why Shopify and CAC has changed the game in e-commerce12:15 How non-SaaS businesses can implement subscriptions13:52 Why subscriptions are not just yesterday’s box companies15:25 What is the best strategy for pricing your subscriptions17:24 Why bundling is so important to e-commerce19:21 The importance of data and personalized marketing with subscription21:18 How companies should think about retention in relation to growth24:05 Dileepan’s best advice for a company just starting a subscription service26:18 Targeting data that Upscribe uses to upsell customers27:22 Why smart subscriptions is a good idea29:14 The decision to take on funding from UncorkFast FavoritesPodcast:Invest Like The BestNewsletter/BlogScott GallowayTech GadgetSony HeadphonesTrendThe future of workBookUntethered Soul by Michael SingerFollow 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 transitions into different eras of the web can sometimes be hard to miss, but our guest today, renowned VC investor and Operator Mo Koyfman, has seen the signs clearer than others. He helped shape Web 2.0 as an operator and is now working hard shaping Web 3.0 as an investor. Mo and Matt have a fun conversation that dives into his views on the emergence of embedded Fintech and the ways he is looking to invest in the future of Fintech.About Mo Koyfman:Mo Koyfman is a prolific venture capitalist who started his career investing at IAC, working underneath Barry Diller. Mo led IAC’s acquisition of Vimeo, while also acting as COO for a period of time, Mo later moved on to Spark Capital in 2008, where he led investments in companies like Skillshare, Warby Parker, Plaid, and several others.Mo launched his new fund Shine Capital with $125 Million in funding in the Fall of 2020.A message from our sponsor:Now more than ever, entrepreneurs need committed partners to help them navigate the hardest pain points of scaling a technology business. Created by one of Canada’s largest banks, RBCx is re-imagining what it means to create meaningful and impactful technology companies in Canada.RBCx – the tech banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada - is a full-service platform that accelerates the entrepreneurial journey at every stage of growth – providing access to a complete suite of capital solutions, innovative products and services, and operational expertise to help technology companies scale.Sid Paquette – former Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, is leading the group and has recruited a bunch of new faces to the bank from the Venture and Tech industry. Tony Barkett and Tyler Kirk – two former Silicon Valley Bank leaders in addition to Nicole Kelly and Anthony Mouchantaf have also joined Sid from OMERS Ventures.RBCx has been incredibly active since their launch in June as an LP, and have already backed some of Canada’s most notable VC funds including Golden, Amplitude, Version One and Lumira Ventures. To learn more about RBCx visit www.rbcx.com or follow them on Twitter or Linkedin.In this episode we discuss:03:12 Mo’s definition of embedded FinTech16:50 How investing about learning and problem solving27:54 Lowering SaaS CAC and increasing LTV through embedded FinTech32:43 Calculations startups should make when deciding to add FinTech and other services38:53 Is the fight for new corporate credit cards a race to the bottom44:36 The future of offerings like compliance and tax services48:24 Shine Capital’s investment thesisFast FavoritesPodcastsJoe RoganNewsletter/BlogAVCTech GadgetHyperVoltNew TrendCryptoBookPortnoy's Complaint by Philip RothFollow 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

Our guest today, George Rossolatos, is the CEO of the Canadian Business Growth Fund (CBGF), which is an evergreen fund. Evergreen funds, or sometimes referred to as open-ended funds, are different than closed-ended funds which are the most typical structure we see in venture capital. With evergreen funds, capital is invested directly into an LLC on an ongoing basis with no termination date meaning they live on FOREVER!We talk with George about this unique position in the market as Canada’s first growth equity evergreen fund, the startup environment, and what Canada needs to do to keep its most innovative companies from receiving funding elsewhere.About George Rossolatos:As CEO of the Canadian Business Growth Fund (CBGF), George is responsible for developing the Fund’s national launch strategy, talent recruitment and the leadership and oversight of its investment activities.Previously, he served as CEO at Avante Logixx, a publicly-traded security and technology company, where he oversaw the company’s successful turnaround and growth strategies. Prior to that, he held leadership roles in private equity, first at Harrowston (acquired by TD Capital) and then at TorQuest as Co-founder and Partner where he launched the Fund’s $180 million Value Fund in 2002 and its $550 million Value Fund II in 2006.In addition to a degree in Commerce from Queens University, he has an FCPA Designation and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with a specialty in Marketing, Entrepreneurship & Technology. He was previously recognized with the Top 40 Under 40 award, recognizing young business leaders.In this episode we discuss:01:56 Why CBGF decided to go with an evergreen fund as a structure03:21 From an LP perspective how does an evergreen fund look different from a traditional investment fund04:44 The types of investors that are LPs in CBGF05:34 Where the idea for an evergreen fund started07:24 Advantages and differences between CBGF and traditional VC funds09:34 Strategic differences between evergreen and other funds11:04 The transparency of management fees with an evergreen fund12:10 The benefits of of awarding carry to evergreen fund employees to attract and retain talent13:15 The challenges of running an evergreen fund16:58 How entrepreneurs view taking money from a CBGF versus more traditional funds19:47 Was an evergreen structure formed because of the nature of the LP base, or was the LP base attracted to the fund because it was an evergreen fund?21:39 How CBGF manages relationships with its portfolio companies and its LPs22:43 How Net Asset Value (NAV) is calculated at CBGF24:17 Where CBGF likes to be positioned on the cap table25:25 How returns compare historically between evergreen and traditional funds28:10 Deal competition in the current market30:46 Price sensitivity in their deal analysis32:22 How CBGF manages co-investments with their LP base33:54 Where they see exits for their companies35:57 How CBGF views the long term for the fund itself37:55 The state of the Canadian startup ecosystemFast Favorites:PodcastKwik Brain with Jim KwikNewsletter/BlogJohn P. Hussman’s Market CommentGadgetKindleNew TrendVirtual MeetingsBookGetting to Yes: Negotiating to Agreement, Without Giving In by Roger FisherFollow 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’s incredible guest is Nikhil Basu Trivedi, an investor who has been on the leading edge of investing in dozens of startups just before they become the next big thing. His portfolio includes Canva, Hinge, DoctoronDemand and many more. We asked Nikhil about what sort of data points he looks for when analyzing markets, in order to time the next big thing perfectly for investment; and we dig into some of the biggest lessons he’s learned in the process.About Nikhil:Nikhil Basu Trivedi is Co-Founder and General Partner of Footwork, an early-stage VC firm focused on consumer technology and the consumerization of enterprise technology. Previously, he was Managing Director of Shasta Ventures and an investor with Insight Venture Partners. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in molecular biology and finance.He writes at nbt.substack.comA message from our sponsor:Now more than ever, entrepreneurs need committed partners to help them navigate the hardest pain points of scaling a technology business. Created by one of Canada’s largest banks, RBCx is re-imagining what it means to create meaningful and impactful technology companies in Canada.RBCx – the tech banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada - is a full-service platform that accelerates the entrepreneurial journey at every stage of growth – providing access to a complete suite of capital solutions, innovative products and services, and operational expertise to help technology companies scale.Sid Paquette – former Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, is leading the group and has recruited a bunch of new faces to the bank from the Venture and Tech industry. Tony Barkett and Tyler Kirk – two former Silicon Valley Bank leaders in addition to Nicole Kelly and Anthony Mouchantaf have also joined Sid from OMERS Ventures.RBCx has been incredibly active since their launch in June as an LP, and have already backed some of Canada’s most notable VC funds including Golden, Amplitude, Version One and Lumira Ventures. To learn more about RBCx visit www.rbcx.com or follow them on Twitter or Linkedin.In this episode we discuss:03:38 How does Nikhil define the “next big thing”04:48 The biggest lesson Nikhil has learned07:18 How to think about timing when to step in10:05 The NFT wave and opening up of new opportunities12:53 How to think about potential sizes of investment16:57 Staying grounded in reality rather than being driven by hype19:09 What Nikhil looks for in founders20:36 Analyzing product market fit24:59 Viewing competitors in the early-stage market27:14 Enterprise trends post-pandemic that Nikhil is excited about29:50 Thoughts on clean tech/ deep tech32:34 Staying a generalist when investing35:54 What to look for from Footwork VCFast FavoritesPodcastsThe All In PodcastNewsletter/BlogNot Boring by Packy McCormickTech GadgetAirPodsNew TrendFounders working on climate related solutionsBookLeading: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United by Alex Ferguson and Michael MoritzFollow 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

Since the onset of the pandemic, everyone became a day trader overnight, whether it was Robinhood day traders trading options in Tesla or Wall Street investors betting in meme stocks like Gamestop. On today’s show we ask Tobias why he thinks building a content creation platform for day traders is what people really want, how Trading.TV plans to integrate with other platforms who trade in stocks, crypto and other alternative assets, and more!About Tobias:Tobias Heaslip is founder and CEO of Trading.TV, a social livestream platform for traders and financial content creators. Previously, he was director of Technology, Media and Telecom trading at Barclays Investment Bank, Equity Trader at Och-Ziff Capital Management and Analyst at Morgan Stanley. In this episode we discuss:02:00 Tobias’ personal background and why he founded Trading.TV03:25 Tracking financial markets on social media06:04 Competing with different online platforms08:13 Why we need a new trading platform09:04 What kind of content is on Trading.TV09:58 Managing the costs of content creation11:42 Verifying users on the platform15:23 Incentivizing content creators on the platform16:48 Promotional content on financial TV18:17 Short form content for financial advice20:40 Integrations with other platforms21:35 Getting away from the liability of offering financial advice23:55 How to make different asset classes digestible30:20 Creating an inclusive and diverse community32:12 What to expect from Trading.TVFast FavoritesPodcastsGroup ChatNewsletter/BlogThe HustleTech GadgetiPhoneNew TrendNFTsBookHarry PotterFollow 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

Funding a new business to fuel growth can be done through some form of debt financing or equity funding. Venture debt is a little different from traditional debt financing and in 2020, VC-backed companies in the US alone received debt financing of more than $25B. On today’s show, we talk about when founders should consider debt financing, the ways in which startups should think about raising debt vs. equity in the early stages, and why it's important to never use short-term debt to fund long-term solutions.About Shez:Shez Samji is Managing Director and Head of Business Development at Silicon Valley Bank Canada. Previously, he was VP of Investments at Third Eye Capital, Analyst at AHF Capital Partners and Associate at BMO Capital Partners. He graduated from York University’s Schulich School of Business with a degree in Finance and Accounting.In this episode we discuss:02:07 The pros and cons of for startups to consider when looking at different funding options05:11 Debt financing after a seed/ Series A round06:53 Why SVB cares about equity09:17 Bank debt vs venture capital debt12:12 Avoiding short-term debt as a long-term solution13:26 Questions startups should ask themselves when considering debt financing15:08 Next steps for startups looking for financing16:56 Red flags to look for in loan clauses21:20 Picking between the options23:40 How founders should think about “repayment”25:03 Costs and benefits associated with credit28:33 Differences between venture financing and more conventional methods of lending32:43 Benefits of working with a bank focused on startup financing34:12 What Shez is excited about for the future of the marketFast FavoritesPodcastsThe All In PodcastNewsletter/BlogBloombergTech GadgetiPhoneNew TrendCanada’s VC environmentBookThe Most Important Thing by Howard MarksFollow 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 petcare industry is a $100 billion dollar market, with about 2/3rds of US households owning a pet. Recently, consumers have started spending more on their pet’s health and well-being. On today’s show, we ask Marc about the petcare’s industry transition to healthtech, the effects the pandemic has had on pet adoption and ownership, and how startups like Pawp are helping owners take back control of their pet’s data.About Marc AtiyehMarc Atiyeh is the founder/CEO of Pawp, a digital health clinic that provides unlimited access to licensed vets 24/7 & a $3,000/year pet emergency fund. Previously, he served as the CSO of Clarity Money (Acquired by Goldman Sachs) and was the Head of Growth at Paribus (acquired by Capital One.) He graduated from Harvard with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.In this episode we discuss:01:58 How has PetTech evolved since the inception of the industry03:53 Why has it been so slow to adopt technology06:04 Financial and informational inefficiencies in the veterinary space10:07 The replacement value of PetTech12:48 Marc’s ground-up approach to building a pet startup15:59 Why did it take so long for telehealth to enter the market20:09 Closing the gap between prescriptions and telemedicine24:11 Defending against larger retailers30:39 How Pawp differentiates itself from its competitors38:43 The impact of COVID on pet demand (COVID puppies) and how it affected the industry44:28 Fundraising for Pawp Series A Fast FavoritesPodcastThe Pomp PodcastNewsletter/BlogMorning BrewTech GadgetWHOOPNew TrendPeople drinking less alcoholBookCrossing the Chasm by Geoffrey MooreFollow 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

As everyone quickly realized during the pandemic, remote work and distributed teams are here to stay. How should startups think about managing their global payments? On today’s show, we ask Dileep about the issues with multiple payment rails, bringing on independent contractors as full-time employees, and setting up local and global entities with various forms of credit.About DileepDileep is the co-founder and CEO of Jeeves, a company that provides financial infrastructure for global startups. Previously, he was Co-Founder & COO at Jeeng/PowerInbox and M&A Strategy consultant at Deloitte Consulting. He graduated with an MBA from Stanford, and was part of the YC Summer Class of 20. In this episode we discuss:02:22 What the distributed workforce market looked like prior to COVID-1904:33 How COVID changed the global infrastructure stack06:16 How startups have dealt with hiring remote workers07:14 Other challenges startups face when paying in local currencies10:03 Navigating the input-output flow of currencies11:43 Why most fintechs tend to focus on a single country13:36 How Jeeves is thinking about the future of multi-faceted payments14:22 The democratization of single payments across the world15:53 Suggestions for founders regarding international payroll/ HR risks18:06 Advice from Dileep as a founder20:37 Should international employees be hired as independent contractors?22:29 Over-correcting for success23:36 Covering third party costs for remote teams25:44 How should a founder think about hidden/unseen costs in the global market?27:57 Annual losses to global transaction costs, and why there has not been a solution before31:09 How non-US entities can benefit from working with Jeeves33:34 Jeeves’ funding history36:08 Taking on additional debt37:01 The future of Jeeves in terms of new markets/product offeringsFast FavoritesPodcastThe DailyNewsletter/BlogPro Football TalkTech GadgetPortable SpeakersNew TrendMeme StocksBookThe Undercover Economist by Tim HarfordFollow 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 construction industry is estimated to be over $2.5 trillion and growing in the United States, yet the industry has been especially slow at adopting newer technology solutions. Ron Goldschmidt joins us to share his thoughts on how construction companies can adapt to our remote reality, and why they have been resistant to change in the first place.About RonRon Goldschmidt co-founded Briq, a fintech company for the construction industry, in 2018 and has been Chief revenue Officer since 2020. Prior to this, he worked on Wall Street as Head of Emerging Markets at RBC Capital Markets and as Executive Director at UBS. He graduated from the Ivey Business School at Western University with an honors in Business Administration. In this episode we discuss:02:14 Why has the construction industry failed to invest in newer productivity tools?04:17 What sort of efficiencies are being deployed in the industry today?07:43 How has management successfully changed in the construction industry?12:12 How Briq is dealing with legacy APIs in the construction industry15:54 Technological innovations like electronic invoicing and data solutions18:23 The role of AI and ML in the construction industry22:00 The labor shortage in the construction industry24:53 Carve-outs for construction in the infrastructure bill27:09 How inflation plays into budgeting and supply/material forecasting30:06 How Briq approaches these budgeting challenges34:15 Briq’s Series B funding round with Tiger GlobalFast FavoritesPodcastsThe Portal with Eric WeinsteinNewsletter/BlogKnowledge Traction by Pascal UngerTech GadgetPortable Massager/ TheragunNew TrendVertical FintechBookA Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca by Andrés ReséndezStart with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon SinekFollow 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 the United States, the average household spends around $4200 a year on energy costs. How can we reduce this burden by building more efficient homes? We ask Manuel about how PowerX is helping consumers save costs and resources, how he attracted investments from the likes of Tesla and YCombinator, and more on today’s episode. About ManuelManuel Schoenfeld has been the founding CEO of PowerX since 2019. He was previously a project manager at McKinsey, and consultant at the World Bank, where he advised on innovative energy solutions. He was a McCloy Scholar at Harvard University, a Van Beek Scholar at the Wharton Business School, and graduated from the Rotterdam School of Management with the highest grade average in history.In this episode we discuss:03:45 The problem with the continued use of energy inefficient resources05:57 The importance of more information07:44 Legislation and energy conservation09:41 Cost and financial incentives making change easier10:58 Why haven’t builders adapted to building energy efficient homes from scratch12:22 Push and pull strategies between customers and builders13:12 When the US could become net zero 15:58 How the pandemic has affected this problem19:33 The origins and the mission of PowerX23:59 How PowerX is keeping costs low30:37 The recommendation algorithm of PowerX33:34 PowerX’s Kickstarter campaign35:28 Plans for growth over the next yearFast FavoritesPodcastsResidential Tech TalksNewsletter/BlogFortune Term SheetCleanTechnicaTech GadgetBB8New TrendAnything in the climate change arenaPutting value on human relationships and physical interaction post-COVIDBookBooks on Quantum PhysicsFollow 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

Treasury departments are full of business-critical activities, but still have manual interventions. In a world gone remote, how have platforms like FinLync dealt with supply chain issues and real-time payments? All this and more, on today’s episode with Phillip Klein.About PhillipPhillip Ashley Klein is CEO and Co-founder of FinLync, a global fintech company. He was previously a management consultant at Deloitte London, a derivatives and structured products trader at Morgan Stanley and a treasury trader at Citi London. He graduated from Loughborough University with a bachelor’s degree in Management, Finance & Economics.In this episode we discuss:01:38 What corporate treasury departments do03:14 Manual errors in corporate treasury operations06:35 How financial risks have changed since the pandemic and how FinLync dealt with them11:01 FinLync’s real-time payment infrastructure13:02 Risks associated with real-time payments15:25 FinLync’s integration with SAP/ERP systems18:15 Advice for startups considering integrations19:51 FinLync’s partnerships with global banks21:57 Defense against exclusivity demands for startups24:41 Overcoming budget pushbacks in a slower industry26:57 How startups should think about building their treasury systems29:33 Advice for founders in a remote work environment and global culture32:25 FinLync’s recent equity funding roundFast FavoritesPodcastsHow I Built This with Guy RazNewsletter/BlogAbundance Insider by Peter DiamandisTech GadgetiPhoneNew TrendBoxingBookSteve Jobs by Walter IsaacsonFollow 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

Paul Martino is truly a pioneer in the world of social networking. His early online gaming innovations from over 30 years ago are the inspiration for several of the modern social gaming offerings, and he holds over a dozen patents on core social networking concepts, content targeting, and recommendation systems. In this episode, we chat with him about his experience in finding product-market fit and keeping up with ever-changing market trends.About Paul:Paul Martino is an entrepreneur and investor, interested in the intersection of sports, gaming, gambling, and technology. He is co-founder of Bullpen Capital and has founded seven other companies, including Ahpah Software (a computer security firm); Tribe (one of the world’s first social networks), and Aggregate Knowledge (a big data advertising attribution company). His latest endeavor, Bankroll, is building a next-generation sports betting-focused elevated dining restaurant in his hometown of Philadelphia.In this episode we discuss:03:05 What exactly is product market fit?04:05 Is it more important to focus on people, product or market when starting out?09:36 How should people think about finding new markets?11:55 The importance of iteration speed when finding product market fits17:57 What should founders ask themselves to find out if they have product market fit?21:20 Testing whether you have product market fit23:11 Are NPS scores valuable?24:55 What are some misconceptions founders should be aware of?30:50 How do founders avoid premature scaling?32:28 Advice for hiring when you find product market fit34:48 Bullpen’s plan to continue helping firms find product market fitFast FavoritesPodcastsWhistleblowerNewsletter/BlogMatt Ocko’s Data CollectiveNew TrendDemocratization of access to capitalBookThe Burden of Bad Ideas by Heather Mac DonaldFollow 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’re revisiting an episode with the unbreakable John Ruffolo, recorded during the pandemic last year. Since then, John has suffered a cycling accident, made an incredible recovery, and launched a $500M growth stage equity fund, Maverix PE. For Canada Day, we’re chatting with this maverick about nurturing the next generation of tech and VC entrepreneurs.About JohnJohn Ruffolo is Founder & former CEO of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder & Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators. He started the Ontario Municipal Workers Pension Funds Venture arm in 2011, and has been instrumental in helping develop some of Canada’s biggest tech companies. John’s portfolio includes companies such as Hootsuite, Hopper, PasswordBox (which sold to Intel), Shopify (which IPOd 2015), Wave (which sold to H&R Block) and countless others.In this episode we discuss:02:00 Private market valuations prior to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis09:26 How growth investors are pricing investments given the flux in public markets15:51 Building stronger and deeper relationships without being able to visit CEOs18:57 Adding value as a late-stage investor24:08 How to raise capital as a seed/ Series A founder27:45 John’s view on the Canadian tech landscape36:16 Weak points in the tech ecosystem and recommendations for founders45:04 Where emerging managers should focus their attention in a new landscapeFollow 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 if you had a psychic digital gift concierge to help improve your corporate prospects and perhaps rid you of some decision fatigue in the process? That’s where Greg Segall, design/UX enthusiast and e-commerce expert comes in. How has this $120B industry evolved in a world where interpersonal exchange seems like an artifact of the past? All this, and more on today’s episode.About Greg:Greg Segall is an entrepreneur, executive, and supply-chain manager. He is the founder and CEO of Alyce, an AI powered corporate gifting platform. He was also founder and CEO of One Pica (now Astound Commerce), a global e-commerce agency, until 2012. Greg graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor’s degree in Design and Computer Science.Support for this podcast comes from Silicon Valley Bank“What’s next?”“What if?”“Now what?”Silicon Valley Bank understands these questions can keep founders up at night.For over thirty-five years, Silicon Valley Bank has helped high growth companies through scalable financial solutions, plus insights and expertise that many other banks just can’t.In 2019 we opened an office in Toronto dedicated to lending to Canadian businesses and their investors.Find out more at svb.com/CanadaSilicon Valley Bank – Built for What’s Next.In this episode we discuss:02:58 The current state of the corporate entertainment world and challenges companies face07:04 Why startups and technology companies have taken a liking to corporate gifting recently09:21 How to scale authenticity when it comes to one-to-one interactions16:35 Attention vs. action in a digital age18:44 Swag as a tool to build affinity for a brand21:43 How Alyce personalizes gift-giving26:13 Measuring ROI in corporate entertainment29:37 Following up with clients after hosting events and converting leads into opportunities35:00 How the market is going to move into more intimate environments40:36 Alyce’s growth planFast FavoritesPodcastsMasters of ScaleSaastrNewsletter/BlogMorning BrewTech GadgetEcho BikeNew TrendThe Push/Pull/Legs RoutinePeople to FollowJeff CavaliereBookThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzFollow 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

Bruce Croxon is a legend in the Toronto startup scene. He’s led successful startups as an operator, but also is known as a mentor and investor, and of course he’s also become a bit of a media celeb. It was great to chat with him about the Canadian startup ecosystem, how much it’s grown and where it’s headed.About Bruce:Bruce Croxon is a Canadian entrepreneur, television personality, and venture capitalist. Croxon is currently a partner at Round13 Capital and co-host of BNN's TV show, The Disruptors. Croxon co-founded the dating website Lavalife and joined the cast of CBC's Dragons' Den from 2011-2013.Support for this podcast comes from Silicon Valley Bank“What’s next?”“What if?”“Now what?”Silicon Valley Bank understands these questions can keep founders up at night.For over thirty-five years, Silicon Valley Bank has helped high growth companies through scalable financial solutions, plus insights and expertise that many other banks just can’t.In 2019 we opened an office in Toronto dedicated to lending to Canadian businesses and their investors.Find out more at svb.com/CanadaSilicon Valley Bank – Built for What’s Next.In this episode we discuss:03:42 The Canadian Tech Scene today compared to the late-1980s07:36 How homegrown capital has changed the game10:37 Maintaining competitive advantage of Canadian VC16:51 Helping spark the entrepreneurial spirit in potential Canadian founders20:00 Is the blitz-scaling style of startups compatible with Canadian Investors25:51 The changing mindset of Canadian LPs28:34 Getting into growth stage rounds of companies31:17 Why founders need to take seriously who they are take investment from33:34 The next industries Canada investors should back38:03 Keeping talent local41:10 What the Canadian government should do to spur startup growthFast FavoritesPodcastsBill SimmonsSpittin’ ChicletsNewsletter/BlogLogic PeakBeta KitTech GadgetAirpodsNew TrendDemocratization of ProductionBookChasing the Scream by Johann HariFollow 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 a remote culture at work is something that has been thrust upon many businesses in the last 18 months, no so for today’s guest Nicolas Vandenberghe, co-founder and CEO of Chili Piper. Nicolas and the team are making waves in the competitive scheduling marketplace and recently closed a $33M Series B Lead by Tiger Global.About Nicolas:Nicolas started selling newspapers in the streets of Paris in high school. After graduating from Stanford Graduate School of Business, he started and sold 3 tech companies and also ran Sales for a $2B telecom company, negotiating billion-dollar deals with companies like Google.Presently I'm the CEO and Co-Founder of the tech firm - Chili Piper - a pioneer in Buyer Enablement. He co-founded Chili Piper in 2016 and successfully bootstrapped it past $2M ARR until receiving funding in 2019. Chili Piper is a forward-thinking company with a 100% remote work force. It's fully distributed leveraging global talent with employees in 28 cities in 21 countries.Support for this podcast comes from Silicon Valley Bank“What’s next?”“What if?”“Now what?”Silicon Valley Bank understands these questions can keep founders up at night.For over thirty-five years, Silicon Valley Bank has helped high growth companies through scalable financial solutions, plus insights and expertise that many other banks just can’t.In 2019 we opened an office in Toronto dedicated to lending to Canadian businesses and their investors.Find out more at svb.com/CanadaSilicon Valley Bank – Built for What’s Next.In this episode we discuss:03:00 The origins of Chili Piper05:38 How Oracle’s sales practices pushed Nicolas to start Chili Piper08:31 The future of SaaS pricing and unbundling10:36 The decision to bootstrap for the first two years12:28 How long the initial MVP took to develop14:15 The early sales process15:45 Competing in a crowded market20:10 Early A/B testing and how they succeed23:01 Knowing when Chili Piper had product/market fit24:42 Why integrations are so important27:50 Why he started a second company, kosmotime.com, to help with scheduling31:10 How Chili Piper built a remote-first company prior to the pandemic37:04 Talking about Chili Piper’s series B Raise of $33M and what is smart moneyThe book Nicolas recommends:Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on it by Chris VossFollow 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 and talking to your potential customers and discovering product market fit is one of the biggest challenges facing new startups, but our guest today Omri Mor, co-founder and CEO of Routable.com found joy in that process. Over the course of 9 months, Omri and his co-founder visited over 170 companies and held over 350 conversations around the pain point of B2B payments. What they learned allowed them to successfully apply to Y Combinator without a working MVP, and find early traction with large customers.Omri’s Background:Omri Mor is a serial founder, previously founding Down App, Inc. and Ziibra. Omri completed his bachelor’s at University of Washington.With over 35 years of experience working with founders, it probably comes as no surprise to hear that all they do is work to support the needs of entrepreneurs and their investors. Silicon Valley Bank understands the questions that can keep founders up at night.The team in Canada that includes Shez Samji, Managing Director and Head of Biz Dev, has been a breath of fresh air for the Canadian startup ecosystem. With a team of experts dedicated to supporting Canadian startups, SVB has been providing not only financial services to innovative companies like ours at Ripple Ventures but also at the fund level for ourselves and our LPs. Shez and his team are also helping build connections to potential partners through introductions and events, research, and insights, and helping leverage their full SVB platform to help our founders succeed globally. With such a rich history as Silicon Valley's banking partner for some of the top tech companies in the world, it’s no surprise that we have decided to partner with SVB Canada at Tank Talks so other founders and entrepreneurs can benefit from the incredible products and services SVB offers. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with an intro meeting with one of SVB Canada’s team members by visiting svb.com/Canada and mentioning "Tank Talks" to get set up today. Find out more at svb.com/CanadaTopics we discussed:03:38 What lead Omri to B2B payments06:03 What he discovered to realize that making a better system for B2B payments was possible09:13 How complex business payments really are10:00 How companies use internal resources to solve problems10:50 Omri’s extensive research processes and the reason behind it14:50 Why interviews were more important than live testing17:06 How Routable got into YC without an MVP or other traditional metrics19:03 What their YC experience was like22:14 How Routable thinks about integrations25:12 Securing large partnerships27:13 Ticketmaster case study29:22 How Routable saves customers up to 70% on bookkeeping31:30 Literally licking envelopes for ReMax to learn about their payment process32:38 The TAM for Routable33:45 Data and analytics and the benefits of building manual reports36:47 Omri’s pragmatic approach to crypto and real time payments40:31 Routable’s competition42:16 Discussing Routable’s $30M Series B round and it’s futureOmri’s Favorite PodcastBill SimmonsOmri’s Favorite BlogHis InboxOmri’s Favorite Tech GadgetPowerbeats ProOmri’s Favorite New TrendGen Z’s discussion about money and FinTechOmri’s Favorite BookAcross The Nightingale Floor by Lian HearnFollow 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 talk about who will be able to compete with Amazon and Shopify post pandemic. Our guest today, Anton von Rueden, and his team at Boosted Commerce are looking at Amazon and Shopify as the OS for ecommerce, to see who is succeeding and then buying those winners and helping grow them through efficiencies and internal operating systems.Anton’s Background:Anton von Rueden is currently Boosted Commerce’s President & COO. He began his career in Germany in 1999, joining a small startup that would become eBay Germany. At eBay, Anton managed marketing, built eBay’s European Customer Service Center, and then, as Managing Director, established eBay’s business teams in Austria and Switzerland.In 2012 he co-founded Carfrogger and led the company as CEO until the successful completion of a merger in 2014. Anton subsequently joined TechStyle Fashion Group as General Manager of Global Customer Service before relocating from Berlin to El Segundo to serve as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all Global Operations. Anton also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Los Angeles Kings and Sondors Network.Aduro Advisors is the premier fund administrator for venture capital and private equity firms. Led by a team of industry veterans and powered by proprietary software, FundPanel.io, Aduro pairs best-in-class service with the robust and flexible technology that the industry demands. From emerging managers just starting out to seasoned firms looking to supplement an internal team, Aduro’s back office solution rises to the challenge of supporting your firm’s specific needs.https://aduroadvisors.com/In this episode we discuss:03:37 Anton’s journey to Boosted commerce05:26 How Boosted looks for acquisition targets06:57 What “Fifth Ave Placement” means on Amazon08:29 Why they focus on CPG and personal care products09:53 The purchase criteria Boosted11:26 Advice to new sellers on Amazon14:19 The truth about competition from Amazon Basics15:56 Do buyers even know who they are buying from17:39 The registration and verification process on Amazon’s side19:38 The future of Amazon merchants20:38 The future of brick and mortar commerce22:47 How distribution will help shape commerce24:26 Boosted’s edge in the FBA rollup market27:15 The onboarding process28:15 The software Boosted Commerce uses to gain edge30:03 Third-party addons to make Shopify closer to the Amazon experience31:19 How consumer habits can evolve over time32:33 Instagram and other social shopping platforms33:29 Livestream shopping and video ads on Amazon35:10 The pandemic’s effect on Boosted Commerce’s operations37:00 Thoughts on supply chain globalization39:28 What North Americans should know about the German tech scene41:28 The tech ecosystem in MiamiBooks Anton Recommends:Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino WhitmanIntentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution by Robert ChesnutRebooting Work: Transform How You Work in the Age of Entrepreneurship by Maynard Web and Carlye AdlerFollow 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 a pleasure to talk with someone who is at the intersection of technology trends, and today our guest Boris Wertz is at the forefront of investing in crypto and has been for the last five years. 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.Aduro Advisors is the premier fund administrator for venture capital and private equity firms. Led by a team of industry veterans and powered by proprietary software, FundPanel.io, Aduro pairs best-in-class service with the robust and flexible technology that the industry demands. From emerging managers just starting out to seasoned firms looking to supplement an internal team, Aduro’s back office solution rises to the challenge of supporting your firm’s specific needs.https://aduroadvisors.com/In this episode we discuss:03:27 The growth of DeFi as an industry04:48 How negative associations with the early ICO market has affected DeFi07:01 The opportunity Boris saw in 201710:32 The speed of innovation the crypto space12:14 How big the market for Ethereum can grow13:52 Valuing crypto platforms and protocols15:04 How Uniswap.com works and its power17:10 The lending mechanic in Ethereum19:58 New platforms like nexusmutual.io and opyn.co23:42 How DeFi compares and competes with another Boris portfolio company, Coinbase28:28 Has Boris bought any TopShot packs personally30:39 Selling his Cryptokitties investment to his LPs32:30 The future of cryptoart34:33 What value means with today’s meme-investing35:47 How his team decides on what is worth investing in38:50 Addressing Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger’s crypto critique41:08 Working with LPs as investment thesis evolves44:02 How portfolio company silviaterra.com is working to fight climate change45:34 Investing while remote46:43 Boris’s favorite podcast: Invest Like The Best47:22 Boris’s favorite newsletter or blog: stratechery.com47:51 Boris’s favorite tech gadget: Google Pixel48:21 Favorite new trend: The creator economy49:34 Favorite 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

Successful founders have been mythologized in startup culture, but the reality of getting to a success is less glamorous, and much harder than it seems. Our guest today, Mike Silagadze, founder and now former CEO of TopHat, joins me to discuss his journey founding one of the largest EdTech companies, his decision to hand over the CEO role, and why he’s joining Ripple Ventures as a Venture Partner.This is a fun, no-holds-barred look at what it takes to create a successful startup.Mike’s Background:Mike founded Top Hat in 2009 with Mohsen Shahini who is now the Chief Academic Officer for the company. Noticing that the graduation rate for university students in North America is below fifty percent, Mike and Mohsen realized that there was a problem of student engagement in the classroom. Through Top Hat, Mike and his team have aimed to better the relationships between students and their instructors and make the university experience a positive one for all. Since its inception in 2009,the company has raised over $350 million dollars and Top Hat is on its way to being one of Canada’s next unicorns.Prior to Top Hat, Mike was an early employee at Miovision Technologies in Waterloo, another great Canadian success story. Mike is a graduate of the University of Waterloo in Electrical Engineering. Aduro Advisors is the premier fund administrator for venture capital and private equity firms. Led by a team of industry veterans and powered by proprietary software, FundPanel.io, Aduro pairs best-in-class service with the robust and flexible technology that the industry demands. From emerging managers just starting out to seasoned firms looking to supplement an internal team, Aduro’s back office solution rises to the challenge of supporting your firm’s specific needs.https://aduroadvisors.com/In this episode:03:37 Starting a business during the financial crisis of 200806:32 Raising his first capital and working with those early investors09:39 The importance of storytelling and pitching in early startups12:11 Would he invest in himself if he heard his original pitch13:30 Finding product/market fit19:35 Maintaining your dataroom in between raises22:28 Benefits of having strong investors23:45 The reasons to acquire a company when you’re a startup31:04 Mike’s thoughts on investment bankers34:13 Did he consider selling early35:06 He he decided to join Ripple Ventures as Venture Partner37:43 The biggest changes in the Canadian startup scene39:06 Thoughts on remote-first versus in-person41:33 The future of crypto and DeFiMike’s Book Recommendations:Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim TalebFollow 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

Working with startups a common theme emerges, the need to hire qualified people at scale is a challenge all of them face. Our guest today, Amit Bhatia, co-founder and CEO of Datapeople.io, is working to improve the recruitment process through data and science to allow much more precise measurement of how companies hire.Amit’s Background:CEO Co-Founder of Datapeople for 6 years, before you were a investment banker at Morgan Stanley and before that he was a Software Engineer working neural networks.Aduro Advisors is the premier fund administrator for venture capital and private equity firms. Led by a team of industry veterans and powered by proprietary software, FundPanel.io, Aduro pairs best-in-class service with the robust and flexible technology that the industry demands. From emerging managers just starting out to seasoned firms looking to supplement an internal team, Aduro’s back office solution rises to the challenge of supporting your firm’s specific needs.https://aduroadvisors.com/contact/In this episode we discuss:03:03 The history of Datapeople.io05:17 How data helps solve the recruiting problem07:31 Indicators that they found Product/Market fit09:40 Current state recruiting13:10 How Datapeople helps with transparency in the hiring process16:56 Examples of how language in job listings can exclude qualified candidates19:36 Ways to fix systemic problems in hiring21:55 How referrals can be a part of the problem26:52 Fixing the problems with internships28:37 Getting better data to help solve hiring problems31:48 Target market for Datapeople33:01 How they get their data34:53 Realworld results from using Datapeople36:27 What’s nextBooks Amit recommends:Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanMoney Ball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael LewisThe Three-Body Problem by Cixin LiuFollow 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 stories around how the pandemic has changed and shifted business, our guest today Shaunak Amin is one of the biggest success stories. His startup Stadium was able to quickly pivot and grow a new business SnackMagic entirely during the lockdown and now is at $20M ARR.Shaunak’s Background: Shaunak Amin is co-founder and CEO of STADIUM and SnackMagic. He is an experienced entrepreneur and operator, and has helped launch and scale businesses in different industries.In addition to the entrepreneurial ventures, his career spans financial technology and investment management with senior roles at Novus - a fintech firm based in NYC, SAIL Advisors- a multi-billion dollar family office based out of Hong Kong, ING Investment Management and SEI InvestmentsShaunak also holds a BS from University of Pennsylvania. He started his first business, Tikka Foods, during his Sophomore year at PENN that initially started as a food truck and ultimately evolved into a wholesale delivery service of ready-to-eat, contemporary Indian food.For more on this story, check out this playlist:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnuoDHNwT1mVI7wPP-kunbjLKgnSY5ZJPIn this episode we discuss:01:31 Shaunak’s early entrepreneurial experiences02:37 Lessons from those days that he’s applied to Stadium and SnackMagic03:27 The business model of Stadium05:23 How Covid pushed Stadium to pivot07:32 Mindset of the company in the early days of the pandemic10:04 The effect on the team size11:05 The decision to fully launch SnackMagic14:08 Research process to validate SnackMagic15:41 Timeline of idea to first order17:50 Why they didn;t choose to be subscription first20:00 How SnackMagic manages SKUs and helps consumers discover new snacks22:31 Getting access to brands24:10 The data around the purchase decisions25:00 How consumers use the platform to try and then buy in bulk26:06 The best sales channel for SnackMagic26:45 The biggest headache for scaling27:26 Network effect of treating it forward28:34 Customer experience tracking29:20 How they weed out weak snacks29:57 The hidden gem of data around what people want to eat31:03 Why Shaunak decided to take a large Series A32:17 The future of SnackMagic33:30 Moving beyond snacksBooks Shaunak recommends:The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. GoldrattInfluence: The Psychology of Persuation by Robert B Cialdini PhDThe Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. ChristensenBlue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan KimFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk we have Jonathan Tower, renowned venture capitalist and author of a recent piece on the Series A gap in VC.Jonathan’s Background: Jonathan Tower is the Managing Partner at Catapult, a cross-border venture capital platform which specializes in investing in emerging tech hubs outside Silicon Valley. Jonathan has deployed more than $220mm in more than 50 companies across three core investment themes: consumer (ecommerce, marketplaces), enterprise (software, services) and frontier technologies (AI/data/robotics, etc).Jonathan's investments include early bets in Jet.com (acquired by Walmart for $3.5 Billion), Dollar Shave Club (acquired by Unilever for $1 Billion), Freshly (acquired by Nestle for $1.5 Billion), and many other companies that have gone on to become market leaders.Jonathan began his venture career with Gabriel Venture Partners and, more recently, was a Managing Director at TriplePoint Capital and a Managing Director at Hercules Capital. Previously, he was CEO at two successful software companies, an M&A investment banker, and a management consultant with Accenture and Braxton Associates.In this episode we discuss:01:17 Why seed investors grown over the last decade04:35 What Series B and C funds are in for with the influx of capital into earlier stages06:41 Concerns with the current trends08:10 How the flood of capital misallocates funds to secondary players and real estate11:18 Recruiting competition in this market14:53 How Seed and A series has evolved in the last few years16:16 The YC effect on startups and investors19:03 How the concentration of follow-on deals can distort funds21:05 What is the metric that startups should aim for to attract investors23:01 Should seed investors evolve in later later stage26:11 The right way to evolve to keep your LPs27:34 Why start a new firm30:53 How the pandemic has affirmed his investment thesis32:09 What the Catapult pitch was to LPs34:17 Advice to emerging managers raising their first fund38:11 The ingredients for creating a successful tech ecosystem41:57 How remote is affecting new tech ecosystem44:04 The long term vision for CatapultBooks Jonathan recommends:Meditation by Marcus AureliusSkin In The Game Akim TalebThe Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture by Scott Belsky Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talks we have Eric Woo, founder and CEO of Revere VC. With so much funding and new ways for founders and VCs to raise capital, what will be the new normal for fundraising and VC in general.Eric’s Background:Eric is an experienced investor and thought leader in the emerging manager and micro VC ecosystem. Eric has deployed over $150M across funds and direct investments throughout his career. He started his career in Venture as Principal at Northgate Capital and then moved over Top Tier Capital. Most recently, Eric was Head of Institutional Capital at Angelist before launching Revere VC last year to build a new model described as the “Vanguard for Venture Capital.”In this episode we discuss:01:25 Why Wric is so passionate about the emerging VC space02:52 History of emerging managers05:20 Limits of specialization of funds08:03 How LPs can force emerging managers to grow away from specialization11:20 Power law and portfolio construction13:48 SPVs for follow-on vs. reserves15:51 Creating access through community and how LPs view side hustles18:19 How LPs use references to vet investments20:36 Rolling funds and how institutional investors view them24:12 What is edge in VC in 202127:57 Investing in information32:10 It’s not how you invest, it’s what you invest in34:11 About Revere VC35:55 How Eric is working to change the mindset around investing38:05 Venture philanthropyFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talks we have Braughm Ricke, founder and CEO of Aduro Advisors, which is a platform that allows fund to streamline accounting and operations.Braughm’s Background:CEO and Founder of Aduro Advisors in Denver, CO. Former Founding CFO of True Ventures with over 20+ years of VC experience. He began his career in venture capital in 1999 and was the Controller at Sofinnova Ventures. Before working in the venture industry, he was an Accounting Analyst at Fidelity Investments. Braughm launched Aduro as a tech-enabled Fund Administrator and has grown to over 300+ Firms and over $30 Billion assets under administration and works with top tier managers like Lowercase Capital, Homebrew, and Craft Ventures.In this episode we discuss:01:46 The spark to leave True Ventures and start Aduro03:14 What emerging managers ask when starting a fund04:15 Defining fund administration06:04 How Aduro handles the boring things while managers source deals06:57 The opportunity for technology to disrupt the VC world09:18 How Aduro scales with clients11:16 LPs and how they are adapting to the surge in emerging managers13:13 Fundraising and timing the market15:56 Launching an institutional fund on Angellist17:13 How new crowd equity platforms will effect emerging managers19:16 The rise of co-investing20:32 Emerging managers of fund of funds21:24 Breaking up the VC oligopoly with data23:57 How using tools like Aduro gives managers and LPs more confidence25:15 What funds will look like moving forward27:01 The push for data standardization across the industry29:47 Giving LPs clarity as dilution and other factors happenBooks Braughm recommends:The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan HolidayThe Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. ThorndikeReady Player Two by Ernest ClineFollow 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 busy week in the Rippleverse with adding a new partner, two Clubhouse events, and starting Q2.With all that going on we thought we would revisit Samir Kaji’s episode from last October. Samir is a friend of the pod and he has recently announced a new venture, Allocate, which is dedicated to helping emerging managers connect with LPs.We will be back with fresh episodes for the rest of April and beyond! 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 on Tank Talks! We have Rob Petrozzo, co-founder of Rally Rd to talk about “Democratizing investing in rare collectables.”Rob’s Background: Rob Petrozzo is the Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of Rally Rd, a platform where investors can buy and sell equity shares in collectible assets like cars, watches, sports memorabilia and art. The company aims to make investing in these illiquid assets more exciting, safe and accessible to everyone. Rally recently closed a $17 million in fundraising from some amazing backers, both strategic and financial including Porsche Ventures, the Raptor Group and Co-Founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian.In this episode we discuss:01:59 How Rally Rd got its start04:43 What it took to get to launch06:50 The decision to jump into different asset classes08:41 Fee structure and the business model10:27 How an IPO works on Rally Rd11:27 Demographics of the average Rally Rd investor13:34 The strength the assets are on Rally Rd15:32 How an asset gets sold from the market18:52 Proxy voting mechanism19:33 Partnerships and what they look like in the future20:53 The effect of Top Shots on the market22:46 Rally Rd’s plan to enter the digital collectable market24:46 NFTs and Rally Rd26:46 Working with their high profile investors29:48 The liquidity of the market32:11 Growth into intangible assets35:40 Legacy auction houses entering the market38:28 Rob’s favorite asset on the platformBook Rob recommendsInside the Nudge Unit by David Halpern Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome Kyle Westaway, founder and Managing Partner of Westaway, an innovative law firm for startups.Guest Background:Kyle is is a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School where he co-teaches a course on social entrepreneurship. He’s the author of Profit & Purpose and every Saturday morning he sends out the Weekend Briefing, a newsletter on how innovation is impacting society.In this episode we discuss:01:22 The tension between lawyers and startups02:59 How lawyers can better align to startups07:07 The pitfalls of getting pro-bono or deferred fee legal services08:56 The benefits of negotiating a flat fee10:10 Finding a balance between risk and optimism14:21 Communicating the building experience to lawyers16:30 Keeping your lawyer connected to your business through updates20:10 Solving the unpredictability of legal fees23:15 How startups can better vet potential lawyers24:46 The legal services startups need26:16 Purpose of the general counsel27:13 The Legal as a Service is evolving28:51 The different service levels Westaway offers30:10 How referrals have grown over timeBooks Kyle recommends:Essentialism by Greg McKeownRising Strong by Brené BrownFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome Aaron Upright, co-founder of ZenHub to talk about “From Bootstrapped to Venture Backed.”Aaron’s Background:Aaron Upright is the cofounder of ZenHub a Vancouver and SF Based startup that was spun out of the incubator Axiom Zen which is also famous for starting Dapper Labs the creators of CryptoKitties and NBA TopShot. ZenHub is a powerful software platform that injects advanced project management functionality seamlessly into the GitHub interface, making centralized collaboration on GitHub faster, more visual, and less cluttered for engineers and developers. In this episode we discuss:01:45 ZenHub’s origins as a side project03:57 The aha moment05:52 The decision to pivot from side project to full time pursuit06:51 Axiom Zen as an incubator experience10:05 Getting ten paying customers on their first day12:16 The decision to focus on GitHub14:55 Bootstrapping for their first years16:49 The discipline required when you are self-funded18:56 How being a part of a larger ecosystem lessens the need for marketing20:17 Challenges of recruiting while bootstrapped25:09 Deciding to take VC money28:18 The size of the opportunity now with VC money30:21 ZenHub use cases32:20 Challenge of scaling culture34:47 The Vancouver startup ecosystemBook Aaron recommends:The Fish That Ate The Whale by Rich CohenFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome Chris Douvos, founder and managing director of Ahoy Capital to talk about “How to build a lasting startup ecosystem.”Chris’s Background:Chris Douvos founded Ahoy Capital in 2018 to help invest in the micro-VC movement. Prior to Ahoy Capital, Chris spearheaded investment efforts at Venture Investment Associates and The Investment Fund for Foundations. He learned the craft of illiquid investing at Princeton University’s endowment and started his business career as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company.Chris authors the blog SuperLP in which he chronicles his adventures investing in venture capital and private equity, and his legendary brick oven pizza parties—small gatherings of LPs, GPs, and entrepreneurs. He is sought after not only for investment capital, but also for his advice, and serves on numerous managers' advisory boards. Welcome Chris!In this episode we discuss:02:01 What is a Startup ecosystem and how do they get started09:54 Why some ecosystems thrive and other can’t get started17:47 The impact of COVID on accelerating ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley20:21 Will hubs still be hubs or will dispersion continue22:50 The role incubators and accelerators play in growing ecosystems24:55 Did Y combinator help create the San Francisco ecosystem?26:17 Why Silicon Valley has a blitzscaling advantage28:13 The rise of virtual companies30:34 Successful companies build their own momentum and can hinder ecosystem growth35:18 How remote work will put pressures on geographies to compete for talent39:30 How do regions think about the future of work40:58 The role of government in building ecosystemsBook Chris recommends:Shadow War by Jim SciuttoFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome Addie Lerner, founder and general manager of Avid Ventures and Charley Ma of Alloy to talk about “The Rise of APIs in Fintech Explosion.”Guests Background:Addie Lerner is the Founder and Managing Partner of New York City-based Avid Ventures, a $68M early stage venture capital firm that has invested in fintech companies including Alloy, Nova Credit, Staircase, Lockstep, and Rapyd. Prior to starting Avid, Addie was a Principal at General Catalyst and before that she was a Senior Associate at General Atlantic in NYC and London. Addie started her career in investing at Goldman Sachs as an Analyst in the Special Situation Group.Charley Ma is currently the GM of Fintech at Alloy the identity operating system for banks and fintechs in NYC. Prior to Alloy, Charley was an early hire at Ramp in the corporate card space and Plaid in the API infrastructure space. Charley started his career at JPMorgan Chase, working across several strategy groups covering payments, APIs, blockchain, and fintech. He is also a somewhat active angel investor, primarily focused on fintech + infrastructure and has invested in companies including Unit, Moov, Finch, Codat, and many more. In this episode we discuss:01:32 The definition of fintech03:19 The difference between tech-enabled and tech-powered04:13 What APIs are and how they are used in fintech06:08 Closed APIs versus Open APIs06:50 The benefits of APIs08:11 The growth of APIs since 201409:56 The explosive growth of Plaid and other Fintech companies11:23 How Covid and other factors are pushing traditional payment processing and alternative payments15:06 How other countries are leapfrogging the US in payments18:49 The growth of fintech for investor and credit platforms21:45 Using APIs to get credit decisions from non-traditional sources25:24 What is white-labelling27:20 Regulations around fintech31:06 The rise of the Neo-Banks33:55 Alloy’s technology around regulations35:48 The importance of data-sharing38:20 The rise of internal regulatory focus at startups40:31 The use of blockchain and cryptocurrency in mainstream financial institutions44:05 Speculation on the Visa/Plaid breakup and a potential Plaid IPO48:30 When will APIs come to insurance49:15 What is the risk associated with relying on another companies API53:30 Open banking and consumer demand and protections55:38 Negotiating fees when starting outBooks Addie Recommends:Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew RobertsBook Charley Recommends:The Anatomy of the Swipe: Making Money Move by Ahmed SiddiquiFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome Chris Harvey, principal lawyer at Harvey Esquire APC to talk “Emerging Managers Legals 101.”Chris Background: Chris Harvey has been practicing law for 12 years as a venture capital lawyer with a focus on emerging fund managers, accelerators, venture studios, GPs and other venture investors.Chris regularly represents venture capital fund managers and investors in structuring fund formations and transaction documents such as LPAs, LLC/operating agreements, Series Seed, Series A, mergers & acquisitions, and all matters related to the venture capital lifecycle.Chris is based out of Los Angeles and shares amazing content on his blog LawofVC.substack.com.In this episode we discuss:01:47 Considerations when choosing a lawyer for your fund04:12 The questions you should ask a potential lawyer05:27 Pitfalls of choosing the wrong lawyer06:52 Fund structures11:10 Formation and fund expenses15:10 GP commitments17:40 Clawbacks versus commitments22:13 What are hurdles25:43 Reporting requirements28:28 Initial closure and rolling closures34:12 Offering GP economics to close strategic investors36:10 Budgeting for legal expenses37:29 Using Angelist to support your initial legal work38:50 Giving away carry as incentive to outside advisors as incentive or compensation41:00 Is venture legal ripe for disruption?44:18 Can VCs hedge against SPACs?46:58 Chris’s best advice for emerging managersBooks Chris Recommends:The Business of Venture Capital, Third EditionFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agent Bee 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