41 min
CEO 101: Vinny Olmstead and Funding an Idea The Inventivity Pod
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- Science
As a first-time founder and CEO, guest Vinny Olmstead reflects on what it felt like to start something new: “The one word I would use is just excitement. If you were taking a picture, I think you would see wide eyes and a smile on my face... In my early days, as I was looking at opportunities, I was hyper focused on solving some type of problem and spending a good amount of time to figure out what the solution would be for that type of problem.”Olmstead is the Co-Founder, Managing Director, and Partner at Vocap Investment Partners based in Vero Beach, Florida. Prior to Vocap, Olmstead was CEO of Bridgevine, an advertising technology company focused on customer acquisition.In this episode, Olmstead talks with host James Di Virgilio about his experience as a CEO and investor, and to share his advice for entrepreneurs that are trying to rise above the crowd to get funding.
TRANSCRIPT:
Intro : 0:01
Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade the podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. Starting and running your own company. It's not for everyone for those who have done it, it can be exhilarating, exhausting, and easily the hardest thing they've ever done. We decided to go out and talk to some of those people and find out what they've learned, what they'd repeat, what they'll never do again. We'll hear stories from their first year, then from the period, when they realize they're going to survive and how they intend to position their companies for the future, we'll find out what a CEO's normal day days like, how they build and manage their teams, what it's done to their personal lives. And finally, when is the time to move on, join us for CEO 101, a limited series of deep looks at people who are their own boss for better or for worse. This episode of Radio Cade, CEO101 features and interview Vinny Olmstead, Managing Director of the Florida based venture capital firm, Vocap Partners.
James Di Virgilio: 0:59
Vinny, take me back to a time that was a first time for you, either as a company, founder, CEO, whatever you feel like was kind of that first experience. And describe for me what it was like to start something.
Vinny Olmstead: 1:13
The one word I would use is just excitement. If you were taking a picture, I think you would see wide eyes and a smile on my face. And if you peel back the onion on that a little bit, in my early days, as I was looking at opportunities, I was hyper focused on solving some type of problem and spending a good amount of time trying to figure out what the solution would be for that type of problem. And I'm sure at one point it will get into learnings and how that evolves. But early on it's a lot of them spend time doing some research. I came up through the finance rings . So a lot of times finance people think about businesses through the lens of Excel and spreadsheets, a little different than engineers do sometimes a little different than sales folks do at times, but me personally, came up through the finance route. So a lot of what I did was think through business model think through pricing, think through the market and those types of things, and try to think about how that solution could grow into something very large. And without knowing it , trying to take a look at competition and find to look at where the needs here . So I answered the question in a couple of ways, which is facial expression. And then a little bit of experience probably on and through the prism of CEO, that has a finance background, which is sometimes good. And sometimes it needs to be complimented.
James Di Virgilio: 2:31
So you had mentioned very early on, I know
As a first-time founder and CEO, guest Vinny Olmstead reflects on what it felt like to start something new: “The one word I would use is just excitement. If you were taking a picture, I think you would see wide eyes and a smile on my face... In my early days, as I was looking at opportunities, I was hyper focused on solving some type of problem and spending a good amount of time to figure out what the solution would be for that type of problem.”Olmstead is the Co-Founder, Managing Director, and Partner at Vocap Investment Partners based in Vero Beach, Florida. Prior to Vocap, Olmstead was CEO of Bridgevine, an advertising technology company focused on customer acquisition.In this episode, Olmstead talks with host James Di Virgilio about his experience as a CEO and investor, and to share his advice for entrepreneurs that are trying to rise above the crowd to get funding.
TRANSCRIPT:
Intro : 0:01
Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade the podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. Starting and running your own company. It's not for everyone for those who have done it, it can be exhilarating, exhausting, and easily the hardest thing they've ever done. We decided to go out and talk to some of those people and find out what they've learned, what they'd repeat, what they'll never do again. We'll hear stories from their first year, then from the period, when they realize they're going to survive and how they intend to position their companies for the future, we'll find out what a CEO's normal day days like, how they build and manage their teams, what it's done to their personal lives. And finally, when is the time to move on, join us for CEO 101, a limited series of deep looks at people who are their own boss for better or for worse. This episode of Radio Cade, CEO101 features and interview Vinny Olmstead, Managing Director of the Florida based venture capital firm, Vocap Partners.
James Di Virgilio: 0:59
Vinny, take me back to a time that was a first time for you, either as a company, founder, CEO, whatever you feel like was kind of that first experience. And describe for me what it was like to start something.
Vinny Olmstead: 1:13
The one word I would use is just excitement. If you were taking a picture, I think you would see wide eyes and a smile on my face. And if you peel back the onion on that a little bit, in my early days, as I was looking at opportunities, I was hyper focused on solving some type of problem and spending a good amount of time trying to figure out what the solution would be for that type of problem. And I'm sure at one point it will get into learnings and how that evolves. But early on it's a lot of them spend time doing some research. I came up through the finance rings . So a lot of times finance people think about businesses through the lens of Excel and spreadsheets, a little different than engineers do sometimes a little different than sales folks do at times, but me personally, came up through the finance route. So a lot of what I did was think through business model think through pricing, think through the market and those types of things, and try to think about how that solution could grow into something very large. And without knowing it , trying to take a look at competition and find to look at where the needs here . So I answered the question in a couple of ways, which is facial expression. And then a little bit of experience probably on and through the prism of CEO, that has a finance background, which is sometimes good. And sometimes it needs to be complimented.
James Di Virgilio: 2:31
So you had mentioned very early on, I know
41 min