Sand Hill Road Sand Hill Road

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Gen Isayama, co-founder and CEO of World Innovation Lab, a Palo Alto and Tokyo based venture firm investing in growth-stage companies and serving as a bridge between startups and Japanese corporations.

00:00​​ Intro

01:30 World Innovation Lab

04:10 From Japanese lawyer to Silicon Valley VC

09:10 From DCM to WIL

13:55 WIL investment thesis

19:40 Japanese entrepreneurial culture

26:57 Open innovation Models at WIL

31:57 Raising Fund I

37:00 Full spectrum of WIL Activities

42:16 Investment strategy and portfolio construction

48:06 Outlook for WIL III

51:23 Call to action

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Dan Ahrens, founding partner at Left Lane Capital, a New York based venture capital and early growth equity firm that invests in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses. 

00:00​​ Intro 

02:43 Consumer vs. enterprise tech 

05:09 Getting into venture 

07:54 Raising Left Lane I 

10:35 Investing while fundraising 

13:09 The Left Lane Capital playbook 

17:09 Due diligence in a hot market 

18:52 Scaling Left Lane Capital 

21:36 Deployment pace 

23:28 Focus area 

26:04 Hard conversations 

28:10 Arc 

32:53 Exo Freight 

35:28 Supply Chain Tech 

37:04 Call to action

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Divyang Arora, founder and CEO of Byte Kitchen about cooking up the future of digital food halls with Byte Kitchen founder Divyang Arora.  

0:00 Intro 

1:24 2 minute elevator pitch 

4:27 Going all in 

8:07 Business Model 

14:52 The Byte Kitchen playbook 

18:52 Optimal Partner Restaurant Profile 

25:39 End customer benefits 

27:25 Raising the Seed Round  

30:14 Early traction 

31:54 Byte Kitchen's Use of Tech 

34:50 Call to Action

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Michael Crandell, CEO Bitwarden about scaling open-source password manager Bitwarden.  

00:00​ Intro 

00:50 What is Bitwarden 

03:22 From side hustle to venture-backed 

06:36 Joining a Bootstrapper at Series A 

09:58 Open-source GTM 

13:25 Open-source defensibility 

15:35 Community vs. enterprise edition 

17:37 Revenue traction 

19:51 Competition 

22:25 Fundraising journey 

25:46 Use of funds 

28:25 Go-to-market strategy 

31:40 Building a remote-first company 

35:11 Arbitrating talent 

36:00 Next steps for Bitwarden 

38:28 Not the first time at the rodeo

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Kyle Harrison, general partner at Country about everything from the economics of whale hunting, the venture product offering to his recent joining of Contrary.  

00:00​ Intro 

01:11 Way into venture 

04:58 Time of reflection 

07:24 The under-innovated venture model 

10:46 Your fund size is your strategy 

16:16 The nature of the general partnership 

20:38 Rethinking the org chart 

25:13 VC product vs. VC service 

28:31 VC product industry practice 

31:13 From monolithic brands to solo capitalist 

37:18 The future of venture tribes 

39:52 Joining Contrary

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Doug Ludlow, co-founder and CEO of MainStreet, which helps startups and small businesses uncover tax credits.   

00:00​​ Intro 

01:05 Hipster 

05:09 Happy Home Company 

07:10 Starting MainStreet 

11:22 The nature of Tax credits 

16:03 The Path Act 

17:52 The MainStreet Product 

19:14 Customer success stories 

20:41 Customer profile 

22:40 Audit protection / guarantee 

24:13 Moats 

25:37 Whitespace vs. Switching 

26:30 MainStreet traction 

27:47 Fundraising  

28:17 Pre-empted Series A  

30:22 MainStreet layoffs 

32:42 Unit economics 

33:42 Unit economics 

34:50 Vision for MainStreet  

37:42 Fast five 

39:01 Call to action