First Commit

We are excited to sit down with Victor Guwein , founder and managing partner at M25 . Victor started his career as a founder of a scooter company, Scooter Versity. At 23, Victor founded M25 to invest solely in the Midwest.  Fast forward 8 years, and M25 has invested in over 130 companies and is now investing out of its third fund. Victor discusses why the Midwest is ripe for disruption, the M25 DN...

We are excited to sit down with Manu Sharma , an investor at Tusk Venture Partners .  Manu started his career at Dallas VC, helping launch the fund before heading to business school in Chicago. This year, Manu joined Tusk Venture Partners, an early-stage fund based in NYC. Tusk has a unique model in that it helps companies navigate highly regulated markets. Manu dives into the benefits of business...

We are excited to sit down with 2x founder Alex Jekowsky . During college, he launched Ulyngo, a multi-channel marketplace that enabled universities to facilitate student life commerce. Alex grew the business until its acquisition by Modo Labs in 2019. He then founded Cents , a leading laundry business management system. Cents helps laundromats with everything from onboarding, payments, employee m...

In today's episode, we're joined by Daniel Fetner , a General Partner at Alpaca .  Before joining Alpaca, Daniel founded Soil Connect, a SaaS-enabled marketplace to manage and acquire soil. Daniel joined Alpaca in 2018 as Chief of Staff and later moved into an investor role. At Alpaca, he primarily focuses on real estate and construction tech. Daniel dives into how he recruited for VC, w...

We are excited to sit down with Mike Hinckley , the founder of Growth Equity Guide . Mike started his career in investment banking before working in growth equity at General Atlantic. Mike noticed firsthand the need for interview prep resources and sought to create a dedicated growth equity platform.  With recruiting in full swing, Mike dives into growth equity as an asset class over time, tips an...

Today, we sat down with Jacqueline Blackburn , a Principal at Decisive Point . Jacqueline was an athlete at the Naval Academy before serving as a platoon commander for six years after college. Now, Jacqueline is focused on investing in defense, energy, and infrastructure. During this episode, Jacqueline discusses the importance of purpose and team, early-stage investing in deep tech, becoming a st...

We are excited to sit down with Charlotte Japp , the Head of Platform at ffVC . Charlotte began her career in creative marketing and later founded Cirkel, a platform that facilitates connections between experienced and younger professionals for mutual career support. Fundraising for Cirkel served as her introduction to the VC ecosystem. During this episode, Charlotte provides insights into platfor...

We are excited to chat with Tycho Onnasch , General Manager of Trust Machines and Co-Founder of Zest Protocol . Originally from Amsterdam, Tycho attended Oxford University before founding Deedmob, a volunteer management platform. Now, Tycho is building Zest Protocol, the first on-chain Bitcoin lending protocol. Tycho discusses deciding where to build in Bitcoin, introduction to smart contracts, ad...

Today, we sat down with Sean Simons , a Senior Associate at Newark Venture Partners . Sean had an untraditional path into Venture Capital. He started his career at PhotoShelter and 212 brewing before beginning a fellowship at NVP. While at NVP, he worked as a scrap collector and airplane washer. Five years later, Sean has built a strong brand by leading impressive investments within supply chain &...

Today we are joined by Rickard Brüel Gabrielsson , an artificial intelligence researcher and co-founder of Unbox AI . Rickard moved from Sweden to the US to attend Stanford and immediately dove into learning systems and artificial intelligence. Rickard breaks down unsupervised learning, text-based language models, revolutionizing retail, pricing your product, encoding semantics, and where companie...

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Kartik Chopra , CIA officer turned Founder, leading Devron - a federated machine learning platform. With a Series A backing from Tiger Global, Devron revolutionizes data access and empowers teams to analyze and build models on-site. Join us as Kartik shares his journey, AI's impact on investing, finding a VC partner, machine learning capabilities, a...

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Dawit Heck , a Principal at Bain Capital Ventures based in New York.  In February, BCV announced $1.9 billion in new funds to back founders from Seed to Growth stages. Over the last 20 years, BCV has backed companies such as Attentive, DocuSign, LinkedIn, Mirakl, and more. Dawit discusses transitioning into venture capital, Bain's structure and valu...

We are excited to introduce John Melas-Kyriazi , Co-Founder and CEO of Standard Metrics . John began his journey as a physics Ph. D. student at Stanford before embarking on a career as an Investor in 2014 at Spark Capital in Boston. After five years of sourcing and leading 10+ investments, John left to start his own company. Standard Metrics is a portfolio collaboration tool for venture capital fi...

In today's episode, we sit down with Teddie Levenfiche , co-founder of PerfectTed .  Formerly an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in LA, Teddie moved back to the UK in April 2021, where he started to create the perfect blend of natural and sustained energy. PerfectTed is revolutionizing the energy drink space in the UK with their matcha-powered energy drinks. Join us as Teddie break...

In today's episode, we interview Judy and Eliot Fost, co-founders of Beli . Former investment analysts at McKinsey, their shared passion for food and exploration led them to create Beli, an innovative app. Beli allows users to organize restaurant lists, maps, and reviews, while also offering personalized recommendations based on their dining history. Join us as Judy and Eliot share insights o...

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Carlos Alonso-Torras , a newly promoted Partner at FinTech Collective in New York City. Carlos is a former operator turned investor with a strong passion for investing in Latin America. His current fund focuses on Seed and Series A investing in FinTech globally. Since its inception in 2012, FTC has invested in over 50 companies, including MoneyLion, Vest...

 We are excited to introduce Romie Boyd , a partner at Sequoia , which has an exceptional reputation for its investments from seed to IPO and beyond. Sequoia has an impressive portfolio, having partnered with prominent companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, HubSpot, 23andMe, and more. Having previously worked with Bain Capital's Private Equity Group in Boston, Romie shares insights on transition...

Today, we welcome Shubham Goel , Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Affinity . Affinity is a relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers. Affinity uses machine learning to score and increase the chance of closing deals, transforming traditional CRM. In this episode, Shubham shares his experience of meeting co-founder Ray at Stanford as undergrads, and talks about the future of CRMs, risks in relations...

Today, we welcome Jack Soslow , an Investor in Andreessen Horowitz’s Gaming group. A16z , a major global venture capital fund, has invested in companies like Airbnb, Groupon, Facebook, GitHub, and Roblox. In 2022, the Games Fund I closed at $600 million, targeting Games Studios, Games x Consumer, and Infrastructure. During the discussion, Jack delves into his path to VC, product testing, the disti...

Today, we welcome Nevin Raj , Co-Founder and COO of Grata . Grata is revolutionizing VC & PE deal sourcing by providing a platform for users to find, research, and engage with middle market companies. Grata raised a $25 Million Series A round led by Craft Ventures in February 2022. Nevin shares his journey of founding Grata, insights on the future of sourcing, establishing product/market fit,...

Today, we welcome Matt Lu from Cowboy Ventures, based in NYC. Cowboy Ventures is a Pre Seed and Seed stage-focused fund. Cowboy has made over 100 early-stage investments, with 70% being pre-product. Before joining Cowboy in late 2022, Matt was an investor at Bullpen Capital in San Francisco. Episode Chapters: Breaking into Venture and Cowboy Ventures - 1:00 East Coast Versus West Coast Investing -...