Speaker Series Rewind: A Podcast by High Alpha High Alpha

In July 2016, Paul Singh, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Bump Health, joined High Alpha Partner Kristian Andersen for our monthly Speaker Series.

Bump Health is a company that serves mom before, during and after pregnancy. He is also founder of Results Junkies, a company that invests in 200 companies each year by driving across North America and visiting cities. The company has a portfolio of over 2000 companies it has invested in.

In this episode, we revisit Paul’s Speaker Series where you’ll learn:

His background and investing thesis
His idea around “moneyball for cities”
Advice for entrepreneurs building breakout companies outside of the Valley

In August of 2017, High Alpha welcomed Lisa Coca, as our featured guest at our August Speaker Series. At the time of the interview, Lisa was the Managing Director of Corporate Venture Investments and Commercial Development at GE Ventures. In addition to her role as Managing Director at GE Ventures, Lisa was also the architect of GE Ventures' EDGE program which leverages the global scale, expertise and resources of GE to provide start-up partners with programs and tools to help them grow and scale their enterprise.

Prior to joining GE Ventures, her professional career spanned a number of other disciplines including finance, sales & marketing, strategy, and business development at major financial institutions such as GE Capital, Bankers Trust, and Deutsche Bank.

Lisa is now a Partner at Toyota Ventures, where she serves as the lead for the Climate Fund. In this role, she invests in the best entrepreneurs developing technologies and solutions focused on fighting climate change.

In this episode, we revisit Lisa’s Speaker Series where you’ll learn:

Key learnings from her experiences in venture capital
The risks and rewards she has encountered throughout her career
GE Ventures industrial journey

In November 2016, Alex Bard, Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures, joined High Alpha Managing Partner Scott Dorsey for our monthly Speaker Series.

Prior to Redpoint Ventures, Alex served as Chief Executive Officer at Campaign Monitor. Alex has also served as Executive Vice President & General Manager of the Service Cloud business at Salesforce.com, which acquired Assistly, Inc., where Alex served as Founder and Chief Executive Officer. He currently serves as a member of the board of directors of several privately held companies.

In this episode, we revisit Alex’s Speaker Series where you’ll learn:

Alex's entrepreneurial journey and his experience starting and exiting companies
Competing with large incumbents and developing meaningful core values
The importance of finding a framework to align and measure your success
How giving back helps build meaningful relationships with colleagues outside of the context of work

In May 2017, Founder and General Partner of Emergence Capital, Gordon Ritter joined High Alpha Managing Partner Scott Dorsey for our monthly Speaker Series. 

Prior to founding Emergence, Gordon spent over fifteen years founding and building companies that pioneered new markets. One of these was Software As Service, a web services platform company he co-founded with Marc Benioff. Before that, he ran IBM’s $3 billion Global Small Business division.

Gordon gave a presentation around the Rise of Coaching Networks and the next era of software that won’t be based on forms. In this episode, we revisit Gordon’s Speaker Series where you’ll learn:

Gordon’s background in SaaS and his coaching network thesis
Evolution of the software sector
How fast the SaaS investing market is today
His coaching network thesis

In August 2019, Kobie Fuller, General Partner at Upfront Ventures, joined High Alpha Partner Eric Tobias for our monthly Speaker Series.

Kobie joined Upfront in 2016 after having previously been an investor at Accel. Prior to Accel, Kobie was the Chief Marketing Officer at LA-based REVOLVE, one of the largest players in the global fashion e-commerce ecosystem. He has deep knowledge of emerging sectors including VR and AR and was an early investor in Oculus and ExactTarget. Earlier in his career, Kobie helped found OpenView Venture Partners and was an investor at Insight Venture Partners. 

In this episode, we revisit Kobie’s Speaker Series where you’ll learn:

Kobie’s journey into Venture Capital
His experience being a part of the Los Angeles startup community
The power of community and how you can use it to build a brand and serve today’s hyper competitive landscape
His take on the future of software and tech

On June 17, 2020 Freestyle Capital General Partner Jenny Lefcourt joined High Alpha Partner Kristian Andersen for our monthly Speaker Series. Together, they discussed Jenny’s career, her path into venture capital, and her involvement with All Raise.

Jenny’s career spans corporate America, consumer startups, founding companies, and investing. After graduating from the Wharton School and spending a year backpacking around the world, she worked for a Palo Alto-based consumer software company through its IPO. Later, she founded WeddingChannel.com and Bella Pictures, both of which went on to be acquired. Today, she spends her days meeting with entrepreneurs and working alongside Freestyle Capital portfolio companies, including BetterUp, Narvar and Daily.co. Jenny is also a founding, active member of All Raise, a non-profit dedicated to increasing diversity in tech.

In this episode, we revisit Jenny’s Speaker Series where you’ll learn:

Jenny's investment and decision-making frameworks
Her mission to take risks in both her personal and professional life
Her role in identifying opportunities for inclusion in the venture capital space