Founders And Funders

You don’t have to understand blockchain to establish ownership of your digital assets. Tari's Naveen Jain tells us how. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Naveen Jain cut his teeth in the entertainment industry, working with marquee artists like Linkin Park, The Killers, Bon Jovi, Carrie Underwood, Slipknot, Tim McGraw, and Lil Wayne. Having deep live event experience and seeing first-hand the challenges that come with ticketing and the reseller market is foundational to the work he’s doing at Tari. An event ticket, in Naveen’s opinion, represents more than just admission to a single event. It’s a digital asset in your virtual wallet, something you should be able to prove is yours and leverage for loyalty benefits. A ticket is also something event organizers should be able to track, control (to a degree), and build rules around for better user experiences. And the management of all this should be easy. Listen

Matt Crowley, CEO of Vesper, shares how the company’s proprietary MEMS tech dramatically improves the reliability and reach of smart devices.

What do AVG's investor appreciation events sound like? And why would anyone make the effort to attend one? Producer Ryan Burleson crisscrosses the U.S.A. to find out. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary In early-April, AVG held the third edition of its investor appreciation event—Spirits & Startups—at the Four Seasons Silicon Valley, so Founders & Funders sent producer Ryan Burleson to capture the scene. Listen along as he narrates the sights and sounds, interviews investors and AVG team members, and details how the event benefits all who attend. Thanks for listening. We'll be back with host Shelley Hunter's next founder episode soon.

Marc Bushala, CEO of Heaven’s Door Spirits, talks about the ease and challenges of starting a brand with a highly-coveted celebrity endorsement.

Producing too much of the wrong thing leads to cash problems and shuttered doors. Hingeto connects brands to new retail channels, solving one of the sector's chief problems. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary On this episode, we’re talking to the co-founders of Hingeto, a tech company that's throwing a lifeline to brick-and-mortar retailers and indie merchandisers who struggle to compete with online shopping. Ismail Maiyegun and Leandrew Robinson created a B2B marketplace that gives retailers “superpowers to sell any product in the world,” they say, as well as the ability to get those products on their partner sites quickly. Maiyegun and Robinson's idea germinated at Y Combinator, where they started with a plan to help businesses efficiently produce limited runs of inventory. The idea evolved to help entrepreneurs increase distribution instead, and Hingeto has since attracted venture funding from Strawberry Cr

When banks wouldn't bite on Kalpesh Kapadia's new credit-scoring system, he started his own company to prove that a person's potential is a better indicator of risk than having an outdated (or inaccessible) credit score. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a policy change stating that social security numbers would no longer be issued to incoming foreign students. This, according to Deserve founder Kalpesh Kapadia, had the adverse effect of eliminating the ability of thousands of students to establish credit. “If you do not have a Social Security number," Kapadia says, "you do not exist in the system until you get a job. You're sort of credit invisible.” Kapadia had trouble himself establishing credit in the U.S., and he knew that more students were entering the country than ever before to continue their education. So he began using data science to cr

When Chris Molaro set out to improve the connection between physical and mental health treatment, he hoped to increase follow-through and adoption. But his technology is now poised to identify more effective and faster-acting mental health solutions. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Christopher Molaro is a former Army captain who, over the course of a six-year tenure, led a platoon of roughly 40 soldiers in 280 Iraqi combat missions. Together, they experienced the full spectrum of danger overseas. But Molaro didn't realize that a grave risk also awaited many of his comrades back home in the U.S.: A lack of mental healthcare awareness and resources. This dynamic became more evident—and deeply personal—when one of Molaro's colleagues took his own life. After returning home from war, the soldier was diagnosed with depression and PTSD and referred to a specialist. But he never followed up. Molaro would soon disc

Two Wharton Business School students struggled to find affordable and convenient seating options for their apartments. So they created Burrow, a hot furniture startup and Chestnut Street Ventures investment. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary All that Stephen Kuhl wanted was a comfortable, affordable couch that he could have quickly delivered to his new apartment. That didn’t happen. So he bought a couch from IKEA, rented a truck to pick it up, and spent several hours building it—only to discover that the sofa he settled for (and worked so hard to get) didn’t meet his needs. A Wharton Business School classmate, Kabeer Chopra, also needed a couch at the beginning of the school year. He desired higher quality than what was on offer at IKEA, so he visited West Elm and plunked down double what Kuhl had spent. Not wanting to pay the extra $200-300 required for white glove delivery, he borrowed a cart from his apar

Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Though Alumni Ventures Group is now comprised of more than 20 venture capital funds, it started with just one: Green D Ventures. The idea was to create a new kind of venture fund, one based on affinity and access—Green D, founded in 2014 by Mike Collins (D'86) would pool capital exclusively from Dartmouth alums to invest in Dartmouth-connected businesses, and it would provide those alums with enhanced access to an asset class that had previously only been available to the uber-wealthy and institutional investors. One of the fund's first ten investments was in Sapho, a micro-app platform founded by Fouad ElNaggar (D'98). Collins had heard a lot of buzz about the company through casual conversations with another Dartmouth alum, and he was impressed not only by the product and its positioning, but also by the fact that ElNaggar had hired several Dartmouth alums to work for Sapho

This week on Founders & Funders, Tom Meyer—Managing Partner of Nassau Street Ventures—talks about the unparalleled asset allocation opportunity on offer for Princeton University alums. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Tom Meyer is Managing Partner at Nassau Street Ventures, which enables alums of Princeton University to access top-tier, diversified venture portfolios. In this episode, Meyer details his close connection to Princeton, what excites him about the Ivy institution's entrepreneurial ecosystem, and how Nassau Street is able to co-invest alongside the world's top VCs. He also shares more about how Nassau Street collaborates with sibling funds at Alumni Ventures Group to uncover the best opportunities across the venture spectrum. Currently, Nassau Street Ventures is nearing the close for its first fund, though Meyer says he's still booking calls for the few remaining spots. Subscribe to Founders & F

Kevin Czinger, the founder of Divergent 3D, is challenging the auto industry’s reliance on 100-year-old manufacturing systems that cannot be sustained. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Kevin Czinger is among the best football players to have ever competed in the Ivy League. At Yale, he holds the school record for single-season and career sacks, he was named First Team All-Ivy League and won the Ivy League MVP, and he led the Bulldogs to back-to-back Ivy League titles. Now he's tackling a different kind of opponent: Climate change. Czinger is the Founder and CEO of Divergent 3D, a Los Angeles-based company that is leveraging 3D printing technology to make vehicle manufacturing sustainable. How Czinger transitioned from the gridiron to rethinking the auto industry’s 100-year-old production line is an interesting yarn. It starts with a year of hitchhiking around the country and roughnecking for an offshore oi

Producer Ryan Burleson attended Spirits & Startups, AVG's quarterly investor event, and he returned with great tape from the founders, funders, and AVG team members who were there. He also sipped cocktails made with Heaven's Door, Bob Dylan's new whiskey label. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary In mid-January, AVG held the second edition of its investor appreciation event—Spirits & Startups—in Manhattan's Langham Hotel, so Founders & Funders sent producer Ryan Burleson to capture the scene. Listen along as he narrates the sights and sounds, interviews founders and AVG team members, and details how the event benefits all who attend. Spirits & Startups is a quarterly event that brings together the entrepreneurs behind AVG portfolio companies with team members and investors in one or more of AVG's 24 venture capital funds. The New York City edition was the second of more to come in locations where AVG has a st

Derek Belch, founder and CEO of STRIVR, started out simply helping athletes improve performance through the use of virtual reality. Now the company is using VR to improve preparation that leads to better performance, regardless of the job. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Though Derek Belch says luck played a role in helping STRIVR become the business it is today, it’s clear that science and study played an even bigger part. While a graduate assistant and football coach at Stanford University, Belch started working on his Master’s thesis with Jeremy Bailenson, a professor who runs the virtual reality (VR) lab at the school. Belch hoped to find a way to train football players using VR. He says, “The project was very successful academically. It was so successful, I had to decide if I wanted to keep coaching or take the idea and go back to the business world.” As luck would have it, the Stanford head coach mad

Andy Palmer has oscillated between investing in and operating startups for many years. Now he plans to dedicate the rest of his career to Tamr. Palmer appeared on Founders & Funders to tell us why. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Employees of large organizations know too well the pain of working on multiple systems—each with its own database. A typical scenario: The enterprise sales team is using a legacy CRM, the small business folks love their spreadsheets, and the account managers lean on a rogue system of their own. If that's not enough, their company is rumored to be merging with another organization that has myriad datasets as well. Disconnected data is costly and operationally inefficient, and it prohibits businesses from being able to compete with larger enterprises such as Amazon or Walmart. Fortunately there's a solution: Tamr. The company—which has offices in Boston, London, and San Francisco—he

Funding is just one layer of AVG's relationship with its portfolio companies. Founders also get white glove treatment by the firm's VP of Portfolio Services, Peter MacEwan, who helps startups leverage AVG's vital network of job candidates, marketing opportunities, and so much more. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary A chief pillar of AVG's investment strategy is to follow top lead investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz into deals. The firm writes a relatively small check to startups, so it's able to both invest widely and smartly. And AVG doesn't take board seats or majority controlling stakes the way its peers do. This novel approach has proven successful for AVG, but the dynamic often begs the question: What's in it for the founders? Peter MacEwan, VP of Portfolio Services at AVG, appeared on Founders & Funders to explain. “I tell our founders that Portfolio Services is

When a business becomes venture-backed, leadership and company ambitions often change. Yona Shtern, the new CEO of ParkWhiz, shares his side of a successful transition story. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary It sounds so simple: Create an app that allows users to pre-pay for and have a parking spot available when they arrive at their destinations. The idea came to Aashish Dalal one day when he wanted to get a prime spot near Fenway Park in Boston, and now ParkWhiz (the resulting app) has grown into a venture-backed business serving more than 40M customers across the U.S. and Canada. The company also partners with hundreds of sports teams, event venues, hotels, airlines, and other clients. The technology behind ParkWhiz is worth its own coverage, but the real story of this episode — featuring the company's CEO, Yona Shtern — is the transition that ParkWhiz has gone through since becoming venture-backed. Man

Josh Levin, Co-Founder of OpenInvest, explains how his business simplifies and amplifies values-based investing. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary OpenInvest helps people buy a collection of stocks that align with their personal interests and causes they care about — all without involving a fund manager and related fees. Users of its proprietary platform invest in businesses that do good for the environment, say, or those that foster gender equality in the workplace. “A traditional financial advisor would probably try to stop you from investing this way," explains co-founder Josh Levin. "But, if you insisted, they would probably buy two funds: A green fund for the environment and a gender fund for gender diversity.” Levin explains that this combination could make the investor "overweight in healthcare and technology,” leading to a potentially bad financial outcome thanks to a lack of diversification and red

Producer Ryan Burleson attended Spirits & Startups, AVG's quarterly investor event, and he returned with great tape from the founders, funders, and AVG team members who were there. He also sipped cocktails made with Heaven's Door, Bob Dylan's new whiskey label. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary In late-September, Alumni Ventures Group held the inaugural Spirits & Startups in Boston's Langham Hotel, so Founders & Funders sent its producer, Ryan Burleson, to capture the scene. Listen along as he narrates the sights and sounds, interviews CEO Mike Collins, and uncovers details about the historic room where the event took place. Spirits & Startups is a quarterly appreciation event that brings together the entrepreneurs behind AVG portfolio companies with team members and investors in one or more of AVG's 25 venture capital funds. The Boston edition was the first of many to come in other locations where AVG has

Arjun Mendhi stopped playing music professionally several years ago, but he never stopped studying the space. Now he’s the founder of MTonomy, a blockchain company that's disrupting the digital media supply chain. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary Arjun Mendhi is the CEO and founder of MTonomy, a digital media store built on the blockchain. Using MTonomy, artists can distribute their media globally, protect their content rights, and get paid instantly — all of which was previously impossible. According to Mendhi, the current music industry is broken because it was built for physical media. “Twenty, 30, 40 years ago, we would go to a store and buy some media content like a film or a song," he says. "You would buy a cassette tape and then a CD. The value chain was built around that.” As a result, he says, money has to flow through hundreds of paper contracts, taking about one to three years to swim through th

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the ensuing confusion deeply troubled Payam Banazadeh, a Stanford grad and former NASA satellite engineer. So he created Capella Space. Subscribe to Founders and Funders on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRADIO, and Android Podcast Players. Episode Summary As Payam Banazadeh will tell you, Capella Space builds sophisticated satellites, but it's not a "satellite company." His company, based in San Francisco, also designs and launches rockets, but Banazadeh will insist that Capella Space isn't strictly an "aerospace company" either. Those terms connote industries with specific purposes, but Capella's mission is more nuanced: To create a network of satellites capable of preventing disasters, boosting commerce, and saving lives. In 2014, Banazadeh came up with the idea to more closely monitor Earth from a "bird's perspective" after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing. "Governments around the world sent ships and vessels to look for this p