The VentureFizz Podcast VentureFizz

Episode 333 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Geri Kirilova, Managing Partner at Laconia.

From what I’ve seen, it is very rare for someone to start their career in venture and continue to progress up the ranks. Usually, an Associate or Senior Associate will do a rotation for 2-3 years and then move on to a portfolio company, maybe start a company, or do something else.

For Geri, outside of a stop at Techstars, the path to venture capital started when she was at NYU as an intern for VC firms including Laconia. Fast forward to today, she is a Managing Partner at the firm and has been recognized by Forbes as a 30 Under 30 recipient.

Laconia leads investments in pre-seed and seed stage B2B software companies with a focus around supporting founders in the early days in terms of sales acceleration, operational execution, and capital strategy.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Advice on building a career in venture capital.
* Why she chose NYU and the details of her experience while in college as an operator.
* A masterclass on how to build your network and lots of really useful tips on how to avoid the uneasy feeling that some people might have with networking at events.
* How Laconia got started by David Arcara & Jeffrey Silverman, plus all the details on the firm.
* Seed round funding benchmarks in the current market.
* The unique due diligence process that Laconia runs which helps founders make potential customer introductions.
* Details on Laconia’s internship and fellowship programs.
* And so much more.

Episode 332 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ben Lerer, Managing Partner of Lerer Hippeau.

The tech scene in New York City has come a very, very long way over the past 14 or 15 years. A lot of that transformation and growth was due to access to early-stage capital which wasn’t prevalent back then, but Lerer Hippeau was a key element to the foundation of its success as a seed stage investor.

The firm was an early investor in many consumer brands that you recognize as they have all been very successful like Allbirds, Casper, Warby Parker, BuzzFeed, Mirror, Venmo, and many more. Its reputation was built on these consumer breakouts, but ultimately the firm is category agnostic investing equally across the enterprise and consumer landscapes.

For example, take a look at two of their most recent investments, which are Boston companies, 10Beauty (consumer robotics for manicures) and Tollbit (content monetization in the era of AI), which we talk about in details for this podcast.

Ben is now a fulltime VC after founding and running Thrillist that scaled and then added other digital media brands under its umbrella as Group Nine Media, which was acquired by Vox Media.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Ben’s thoughts on the market and if now is the ideal time to start a company.
* The inspiration behind Thrillist, plus lots of stories and lessons learned around the full lifecycle and evolution of the company to Group Nine Media and acquisition by Vox.
* Advice for entrepreneurs on building a startup media company in today’s world.
* How Lerer Hippeau came to fruition and what they are targeting for investments, plus why he considers himself a talent driven investor versus a thesis driven investor.
* And so much more.

Episode 331 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Rob Go, Co-Founder & Partner at NextView Ventures.

I’ve been fortunate to have many people support my journey with building VentureFizz through the years and Rob was one of the earliest. Shortly after I launched the site, he reached out looking to meet up and needless to say, I jumped at the chance. Through the years, Rob has always been incredibly helpful with his feedback on VentureFizz when I needed an outside perspective. I thank him at the beginning of our show, but I did want to note a sincere “thank you” here as well.

Rob’s also has a podcast that you should check out called The Idea Maze where he asks the question: where do great entrepreneurial ideas really come from? You can find it on all major podcast platforms, plus I have included a link to it in the show notes.

NextView Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage VC firm that invests in founders who want to redesign the Everyday Economy. The firm’s portfolio includes Bobbie, The Browser Company, Devoted Health, WHOOP, Attentive, and more.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* The five flavors of AI.
* Rob’s background story including what he learned from his Dad’s entrepreneurial endeavors, getting his career started in management consulting, and then learning product at eBay.
* How he landed a VC position at Spark Capital, plus a fun story about his almost investment into Groupon.
* What led Rob and his Co-Founders, David Beisel and Lee Hower, down the path of starting a seed stage firm and what the seed investing landscape looked like back then.
* What Rob is targeting for investments and the importance of founder-opportunity fit.
* What he’s learned while running a venture firm.
* And so much more.

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Episode 330 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Harman Singh Narula, Co-Founder & CEO of Canary Technologies.

“Are these entrepreneurs uniquely qualified to build an industry leading company?” - this is one of the many questions that most (if not all) VCs ask themselves when deciding to make an investment into a company.

When you look at Harman’s background, it is obvious that his “Founder Fit” is at a very high scale. As a graduate from Cornell’s esteemed hotel school, he built a foundation in an industry that was ripe for disruption, that being the hospitality industry. The guest experience is so mission critical, yet for years and years, hotels relied on old systems and the same old check-in process.

Not anymore. Canary Technologies is modernizing the hotel tech stack with its end-to-end Guest Management Platform that digitizes everything from post-booking through checkout. The company works with more than 20,000 hoteliers in 80 countries and is venture-backed by Insight Partners, F-Prime Capital, Y Combinator, Thayer Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and others.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* A conversation about the market for vertical SaaS solutions.
* Harman’s background story and how he landed at Cornell to study Hotel Administration, plus how he got his career started including spending time in the strategy group at Starwood Hotels.
* His long standing friendship with his Co-Founder, SJ Sawhney, and what led them down the path of starting Canary Technologies.
* All the details about Canary, from their experience at Y Combinator to surviving the pandemic to the latest with the company & its platform, including their use of AI.
* Outside of their domain experience, the key factors that influenced future rounds of capital.
* And so much more.

Episode 329 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Pano Anthos, Founder & Managing Director of XRC Ventures.

I always love it when things come full circle. I first met Pano back in, what I believe was 2008 when he was building Hangout Industries. I was running a recruiting firm at the time and I stopped into their offices to discuss some of their hiring plans. Hangout was early to market as the company’s technology in the metaverse lane was very impressive but not ready for adoption by consumers yet which apparently is still the case.

It was great to come full circle years later to interview Pano for The VentureFizz Podcast and get up to speed on what he’s been up to in the startup circles.

Inspired by a discussion with his wife about the retail industry, Pano went off to start XRC Ventures, a venture firm & startup accelerator investing in retail tech, consumer goods and the consumer healthtech sectors. The firm’s portfolio includes companies like Billie, ShopShops, Fillogic, and many more.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* A conversation about anti-dilution protection and why that is an important term for entrepreneurs to understand.
* How Pano got into entrepreneurship by starting a company in the global trade industry and how the early days of the internet impacted this sector.
* Other companies that Pano has been involved in like Pantero, Hangout, and others.
* Launching XRC Ventures and how the accelerator works, plus what makes it unique like not having a traditional cohort program.
* The details on the firm’s Opportunity and Brand funds.
* Thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro and spatial computing.
* And so much more.

Episode #328 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ellen Chisa, Partner at boldstart ventures.

Back in 2016, we wrote a profile about Ellen on VentureFizz when she was leading product management at Lola.com. The profile was part of a series that we called Driven, which I think is a very fitting word to describe Ellen… and ironically, the discussion around considering a role in venture capital actually came up. So, in my opinion, it was only a matter of time.

From being part of the winning team in high school for the FIRST Robotics competition, to starting a company in college, to a career path in product management, to leading a company that was developing a new programming language… Ellen has built the perfect core foundation for a successful career as an investor.

boldstart is a venture capital firm that is your partner from inception for developer first, infrastructure, & SaaS founders that looking to turn your idea into a category-creating iconic company. The firm’s portfolio includes companies like Snyk, Kustomer, BigID, Superhuman and many more.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* A conversation about what makes a great product manager.
* Ellen’s background including the story off taking some time of to build an EdTech startup with other classmates while in college at the Olin School of Engineering,
* Working on early mobile initiatives at Microsoft, then joining Kickstarter as a Product Manager, and what led her to pursue her MBA at Harvard Business School.
* Meeting serial entrepreneur, Paul English, and leading product at Lola.com, a travel app.
* Developing a new programming language for her startup called Dark with Paul Biggar which allows companies to build software faster, plus what this experience taught her in terms of leading a company and getting adoption with the developer community.
* The future of AI developed code.
* How she landed in venture capital at boldstart including what she is targeting for investments and what has been her biggest surprise as a VC.
* Startup pitch advice.
* And so much more.