Interview Begins: 8:51 Debrief Begins: 51:07 A.J. Damiano is the co-founder and CEO of Powerspike. Powerspike is the easiest way to sponsor influencers in the esports & gaming space. Powerspike helps you create campaigns, connect with Twitch influencers and teams at scale, without all the …
What’s coming next for the team at upside [JE021]
This week, we’re sharing a quick update about what’s coming up for the feed for the rest of the year. Due to some competing life priorities, we need to take a short break from recording new interviews. But our feed isn’t going dark – each …
Foodnerd // making nutrient-dense superfoods more accessible through the process of sprouting [UP093]
Interview Begins 8:35 Debrief Begins 42:37 Sharon Cryan is the founder and CEO of Foodnerd. Foodnerd specializes in 100% plant-based superfood products that are designed to increase the world’s understanding or accessibility of truly nutrient-dense foods. They use raw, sprouted, organic ingredients that are GMO-free …
Sam German of SPMB // recruiting upper management and board members to startups across the country [CC082]
Interview Begins 5:05 Debrief Begins 25:39 Samantha (Sam) German is a Client Partner in SPMB’s Emerging Markets Practice. SPMB is one of the fastest-growing retained executive search firms in the country, closing hundreds of C-level searches every year. For over 40 years, SPMB has specialized …
AireXpert // Keeping planes in the air with real-time synchronization for maintenance, tech ops, and flight crews [UP090]
Andy Hakes is the founder and CEO of AirExpert. AireXpert offers maintenance control, quality assurance, base, line, and vendor maintenance, enabling users to experience reduced repair times, decreased delays, and lowered time costs, while mitigating the risk of FAA compliance. Andy has been an aircraft …
Jack Greco of Buffalo Bridge // the co-founder of Buffalo’s first unicorn on giving back to build the ecosystem [CC079]
Interview Begins : 7:37 Debrief: 45:43 Jack Greco is the co-founder of ACV auctions. ACV auctions is an online marketplace for used cars. As of November 2019, the company was valued at more than $1.5 billion. Jack has built a reputation for supporting other …
Karla Gallardo of Viwala // providing revenue-based loans for women entrepreneurs in Mexico [CC078]
Interview Begins : 6:57 Debrief: 37:08 Karla Gallardo is the CEO of Viwala. Viwala provides loans for women entrepreneurs who have high-impact businesses as well as a network of mentors and entrepreneurs who aim to reduce the gender gap in Mexican businesses. We discuss: …
John Gannon of GoingVC // helping people break into venture capital [CC077]
Interview begins: 6:28 Debrief: 41:25 John Gannon is the co-founder and general partner of GoingVC. John has mentored thousands of current and aspiring VCs through his VC Careers blog and email list, which counts VCs from top firms like Sequoia, KPCB, and Bessemer as subscribers. …
Venture Capital 101 with Scott Shane of Comeback Capital [When Pigs Fly #10]
Interview begins: 6:23 Debrief: 50:32 This week we’re hosting an upside feed takeover from When Pigs Fly! When Pigs Fly is a podcast covering the Cincinnati business ecosystem on the upside podcast network. And in this episode, they talk to Scott Shane, the Managing Director …
Michael Cohn and Sean O’Brien of Overline // leading seed stage deals in Atlanta and the southeast [CC072]
Interview Begins: 6:16 Debrief: 37:03 Michael Cohn and Sean O’Brien are the Managing Directors of Overline. Overline is an Atlanta-based, founder-operator led venture capital firm focused on investing in seed-stage businesses, primarily in Atlanta and the Southeast region of the United States. We partner …
Jackie DiMonte of Chicago Ventures // ascending the venture career ladder and opening an office in Austin [CC071]
Interview begins: 7:15 Debrief: 55:14 Jackie DiMonte is a partner at Chicago Ventures. Prior to joining Chicago Ventures, Jackie was a principal at Hyde Park Venture Partners, working with portfolio companies such as RoadSync, Podchaser, Fixer, FactoryFix, and PartySlate. Before that, she worked at …
Jessica Peltz-Zatulove of Hannah Grey // a first check venture fund investing in founders reimagining everyday experiences [CC070]
Interview Begins: 7:12 Debrief Begins: 55:03 Jessica Peltz-Zatulove is a Founding Partner at Hannah Grey, a first check venture capital firm investing in customer-centric founders reimagining everyday experiences to improve work and life. She is also the co-founder of Global Women in VC, the …
Protoball // building a first-person sports shooter indie game [UP086]
Interview Begins: 8:19 Debrief 46:25 Zachary Spradlin is a co-creator of Protoball, a futuristic first-person sports game merging basketball, soccer, and high tech style. Players athletically jump, slide, run, and dash around the arena trying to pass the Protoball through the opponents goal. We discuss: …
Chris Bergman // building Gylee Games and The Fund Midwest [CC069]
Interview begins: 7:58 Debrief: 47:33 Chris Bergman is the founder and CEO of Gylee Games and a General Partner at The Fund Midwest. Gylee Games believes in building big worlds. They believe in games that can be enjoyed in smaller chunks, not requiring hundreds of …
The Launch Company // building the world’s first multi-user, mobile launch site for this planet and beyond [UP085]
Interview begins: 6:51 Debrief: 53:55 Ben Kellie is the Founder and CEO of The Launch Company The Launch Company is building the world’s first multi-user, mobile launch site for this planet and beyond. They develop standardized hardware, ground support equipment, and processes. Ben has a …
[REWIND] SuperRare // creating a tokenized digital art marketplace [RE006]
John Crain is the Founder and CEO of SuperRare. SuperRare is a marketplace to collect and trade unique, single-edition digital artworks. Each artwork is authentically created by an artist in the network, and tokenized as a crypto-collectible digital item that you can own and trade. …
Between Two Hedges // building companies with one foot in and one foot outside Silicon Valley [CC067]
Trent and Travis Hedge are brothers from Columbus, OH, who left for Silicon Valley. But since that time, both have continued to visit and advocate for Ohio and other parts of the country. Travis Hedge is the co-founder of Vouch Insurance (YC S19). Vouch Insurance …
Documo // Fax and document management for highly-regulated industries [UP078]
Interview begins: 11:02 Debrief: 53:06 Matt Valeo is the founder and CEO of Documo. Documo creates document workflow solutions that make working with documents easy, more secure, and better for the planet. Their product suite includes mSign, mFax, and mDrive. Documo was founded in 2017 …
Ashley Flucas of Flucas Ventures // turning 100 angel investments into an AngelList syndicate [CC062]
Interview begins: 8:44 Debrief: 51:53 Ashley Flucas is an angel investor and syndicate lead with Flucas Ventures. By day, Ashley is a general counsel/partner at a real estate finance fund (infrastructure, sports arenas and large-scale condo, apartment and commercial buildings) with approx $3B AUM (LPs …
Einar Vollset of TinySeed // lessons from the first cohort of the accelerator for bootstrappers [CC061]
Interview begins: 9:28 Debrief: 35:09 Einar Vollset is a General Partner at TinySeed. TinySeed is a year-long, remote accelerator designed for early-stage SaaS founders. He is also a YC-alum, former Cornell CS Professor, and the founder of Discretion Capital, a tech-focused M&A investment bank. He …
SLP Toolkit // Helping Speech Language Pathologists manage their caseloads [UP077]
Interview begins: 8:54 Debrief: 1:02:09 SLP Toolkit™ is a web-based app with built in assessments and tools that give a school-based Speech Language Pathologist the confidence s/he needs to take charge of her busy caseload. The software is designed to help SLPs collect data to …
Rootine // Personalized daily health using DNA, blood levels, and lifestyle data [UP076]
Interview begins: 6:52 Debrief: 44:32 Rachel Sanders is the co-founder and CEO of Rootine. Rootine was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2018 and creates custom daily vitamins based on your DNA, lifestyle, and blood level data. Follow Rachel Sanders: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-soper-sanders/ Website: https://rootine.co/ Key Points: The …
Xendoo // personalized bookkeeping for small businesses [UP074]
Interview begins: 6:03 Debrief: 48:54 Lillian (Lil) Roberts is the founder and CEO of Xendoo. Xendoo is a cloud-based bookkeeping and accounting service focused on small business owners. By harnessing technology we give our accounting teams more time to work directly with clients and their …
Dave Sachse // investing in venture funds and startups as a family office [CC060]
Interview begins: 6:49 Debrief: 35:17 Today we’re talking with Dave Sachse, the founder, and managing partner of the Sachse Family Fund. The Sachse Family Fund is a family office venture capital fund based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In today’s episode, we’re finally exploring the family office …
Will Price of Next Frontier Capital // bringing venture capital to the rocky mountain region [CC059]
Interview begins: 6:36 Debrief: 48:89 Today we’re talking with Will Price the Founder and General Partner of Next Frontier Capital. Will founded Next Frontier Capital to partner with mission-driven, talented entrepreneurs to build Montana technology companies of impact, utility, value. Will’s career spans venture …
Peter Livingston of Unpopular Ventures // early stage investing through a syndicate [CC058]
Interview begins: 5:16 Debrief: 43:55 Unpopular Ventures is led by Peter Livingston, whose experience is almost entirely in startups – as both an operator and investor. He was the first engineer at iRhythm (IPO 2016) and was the founder/CEO at Lifesquare (backed by Kleiner …
CC057: Saurabh Sharma of Jump Capital // Series A and B capital for cloud infrastructure and enterprise software
Interview begins: 6:08 Debrief begins: 37:58 Today we are talking with Saurabh Sharma He is a partner at Jump Capital, a thesis led sector-focused and operating centric venture capital firm specializing in series A and B in growth-stage investments, Jump Capital invest in data-driven …
CC056: Chetan Parekh of P&G Ventures // identifying and developing the next generation of billion-dollar brands
Interview begins: 6:08 Debrief begins: 42:55 Today our guest is Chetan Parekh. Chetan is the Senior Brand Director & Innovation Portfolio Leader at P&G Ventures. He leads a multi-disciplinary team in charge of creating new businesses and building partnerships to serve the aging consumer and …
UP073: Pear Commerce // creating a win-win-win for consumers, brands, and retailers
Interview begins: 8:38 Debrief begins: 51:03 Today we’re talking with Eric Martell, the founder of Pear Commerce. Pear Commerce enables CPG companies to drive real transactions from existing national ads and retailers to build their online channel with new customers and repeat purchases. Pear …
CC055: Jason Illian of Koch Disruptive Technologies // investing in emerging technologies for one of the world’s largest private companies
Interview begins: 8:46 Debrief begins: 44:36 This week we’re speaking with Jason Illian, Managing Director of Koch Disruptive Technologies. Jason was the founder and CEO of BookShout, the world’s leading B2B e-book company. He has presented at the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference, …
CC054: Patrick McKenna of One America Works // helping coastal companies open new offices in the heartland
Interview begins: 7:40 Debrief begins: 45:20 Today we are speaking with Patrick McKenna of One America Works. Patrick is an experienced entrepreneur, investor and business leader. He has co-founded, operated as a senior executive and invested in several highly successful technology companies with …
CC053: Andrew D’Souza of Clearbanc // revenue-based financing and the 20-minute term sheet
Interview Begins: 7:11 Debrief Begins: 42:31 In this episode, we’ll be talking with Andrew D’Souza, the co-founder and CEO of Clearbanc. Along with his partners, he has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. At the same time, they help entrepreneurs to grow …