Silicon Street

Gurmaan Bhatia is a Vice President at FTV Capital focusing on the Vertical Software and Payment verticals. In this episode, we dive into the advantages of raising a $2.3 Billion fund - over 2x FTV’s previous fund size. We discuss the opportunities that come with larger check sizes, more follow-on offerings, and even special situations investments. Gurmaan lays out FTV’s thematic focused approach t...

Travis Kassay is an Executive Vice President in the Sales Center of Excellence at Insight Partners, a leading global private equity and venture firm with over $90 billion in assets under management. Travis explains the role of the Insight Onsite Team to help guide portfolio companies in product & tech, marketing, sales, talent, business development, and more. Specifically, we discuss the key w...

Thomas Franco is a veteran of the private equity industry and currently leads fundraising at Clayton, Dubilier, & Rice (CD&R), one of the largest and oldest private equity firms in the world. Tom provides incredible insight on his journey into the private equity world, the rise of CD&R in the early days of the industry, and lessons learned from leading fundraising for over 15 years. We...

RJ Gentile is a Vice President at Providence Strategic Growth (PSG), a growth equity firm that has raised over $10 billion in capital and partners with middle-market software and tech-enabled service companies. We dive into RJ’s transition from private equity to growth equity and discuss his time at Summit Partners, one of the earliest entrants into the growth equity space. RJ then discusses PSG’s...

Mike LaSalle is a Partner of Shamrock Capital Advisors, a Los Angeles based investment firm with a rich history of investing in the media, entertainment and communications sectors. He has a wealth of experience in the industry and has served on the board of companies like FanDuel, Harlem Globetrotters International, and Excel Sports Management. On this episode, we discuss the key investment strate...

Gary Chan is a Managing Director at JP Morgan with a long history in the financial services industry. We cover his experience in fixed income and his perspective on the role of the blockchain in driving innovation in the space. We also dive into how DeFi is disrupting the entire world of traditional finance, discuss the talent wars between Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and the importance of cryp...

Matthew Nash is a Senior Associate at Silversmith Capital Partners, a Boston-based growth equity firm with $2.0 billion of capital under management. During our conversation with Matt, we discuss his path from investment banking to growth equity and his transition from a largely prescriptive role to a more entrepreneurial one. We walk through a day in the life of a young professional at a growth eq...

Matt Roesch is a Vice President at HGGC, a leading middle market private equity firm. HGGC is based in the Bay Area, has $5.6 billion in cumulative capital commitments, and has completed over 300 portfolio investments. During our conversation, Matt discusses his motivation to pursue a career in private equity and perspective on his decision to forgo business school after his completing his associa...

On this episode Alex and Conor chat with Ayden Syal and Brandon Wimbush, the co-founders of MOGL. MOGL is a two-sided marketplace connecting college athletes and businesses to help the athletes monetize their name, image, and likeness. Ayden and Brandon both graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Brandon was the starting quarterback at Notre Dame as well. These two amazing entrepreneurs d...

Brian D’Arcy is a Partner at Sixth Street, a global investment firm managing over $60 billion in assets. He joins the show to discuss his journey in the world of finance and Sixth Street’s unique investment philosophy. We cover how Sixth Street capitalizes on the flexibility of its mandate, explore the process of sourcing deals aligned with investment themes, and dive into the firm’s investments i...

Alex, Conor, and Chris, chat with Elias Dokas, a Managing Director within Midocean Partner’s private equity investing arm. Elias Dokas began his career working with Morgan Stanley in their LBO group and transitioned to work for Blackstone before moving to his current role. Elias gives insight into how Midocean Partners differs in its operations from a mega PE firm like Blackstone and his ultimate...

Jason Boehmig, CEO of Ironclad, joins the podcast to discuss his journey launching a revolutionary software company disrupting the legal industry. Jason and his team have raised capital from some of the best VCs in the world, including Accel and Sequoia, and we dive into the process of successfully fundraising in Silicon Valley. Jason also talks about the insights he learned from his time on Wall...

We are joined by Mike Murray, Head of Product at Shef, which is a homemade meal delivery marketplace bringing the sharing economy to your table. Prior to Shef, Mike was an early employee and Product & Design Lead at Snapchat, where he helped grow daily active users and introduce new features to the app, including Stories, Chat, and Discover. During our conversation, we talk about some of the e...

Alex and Conor chat with Mike Sayles, Founder and CEO of Fresh Street. Fresh Street is seeking to create a revolutionary and innovative grocery experience by creating grocery stores that exclusively offer pick-up groceries. In our discussion about his business, Mike discusses his career path and strategies for career discernment, the importance of operating experience for CEOs and how to best buil...

Alex Huang, Director of Strategy & Business Development at LiveRamp, joins the show to discuss what it means to work in corporate strategy and business development. We discuss the M&A process from the perspective of a strategic acquirer, including due diligence, the mechanics of getting a deal done, and post acquisition integration plans. We also dive into his operational role as Chief of...

We are joined by Vinny Prajka, Partner in the Operational Excellence Group, at the software growth equity firm JMI Equity. In our conversation, Vinny gives his take on what makes software attractive from an investment perspective, the role of a member of a private equity operating team, and the main ways in which he helps portfolio companies. We also dive into the major challenges software compani...

On this episode: Amy Flanagan, an International Strategy and Operations Lead at Coinbase, discusses her experiences working within the crypto economy. Coming from her background in consulting at Bain & Co., Amy was not extraordinarily familiar with cryptocurrencies prior to joining Coinbase. She discusses how she found herself working in crypto, how crypto coins work, why they have value in so...

TCV is one of the largest growth equity firms in the world and has invested over $16B in public and private technology companies. We had the pleasure of speaking with David Zhang, a Principal at TCV, to discuss his career in technology investing. David has over a decade of experience in the global tech industry and he focuses on investments in fintech, digital media, and e-commerce, including inve...

Conor and Alex chat with Cristina Riojas, co-founder of Sila, a tea brand focused on mindfulness and connection. We discuss starting a company as a college student, Cristina’s passion for tea, and the importance of making the most of a few key decisions in one’s life. Cristina also describes how she has learned to deal with failure during her entrepreneurial journey and her goals for Sila over the...

In this episode, we speak with Kevin Dunwoodie, a Partner in Pantheon’s Global Secondaries Investment Team. We discuss what the private equity secondaries market is, the value proposition for buyers and sellers, and the key drivers of returns for a secondaries fund. We also dive into the way in which secondaries markets have reacted to recent financial crises and the evolution of GP-led secondary...

In this episode, we are joined by Jason Schoettler, co-founder and managing partner of Calibrate Ventures. Jason and his investing partner have funded companies like Dollar Shave Club (acquired by Unilever), Soft Robotics, Ring, SolarCity, and Chegg. In our conversation, we discuss his decision to start his own venture firm, synthetic data, the challenges robotics companies face over SaaS business...

In this episode we speak with Peter Bell. Peter is the Chairman at Amity Ventures, a VC and PE firm investing in "category defining" technology companies, and the CEO of Epiphany Technology Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC targeting technology companies. Peter's career began in entrepreneurship and has led him to private investing. Peter has a unique view on making private investments and his firm...

On this episode: We chat with Jeff Moss, Founder and CEO of Parker Dewey, an education technology marketplace focused on connecting students to micro-internships with reputable companies. We discuss the value of micro-internships, how Jeff transitioned from being a director at Susquehanna Growth Equity, and how Parker Dewey overcame the challenges of building out a two-sided marketplace. Jeff has...

On this episode: Conor and Alex chat with Joel Neidig, CEO and co-founder of Simba Chain, a blockchain-as-a-service platform that makes it easy to deploy this exciting new technology across multiple blockchains and data platforms. This conversation defines the blockchain, evaluates potential use cases, and breaks down where Simba Chain fits into the current ecosystem. We specifically dive into sma...

On this episode: Jere Doyle is a Boston College professor and proven entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and angel investor across many different companies and funds over the course of his illustrious career. In our conversation, Jere gives his take on the role of innate ability and learning in becoming a successful entrepreneur and describes how entrepreneurship is “the pursuit of opportunity with...