Investor Connect Podcast

On this episode, Hall is joined by James Wang of Creative Ventures. Before early stage investing, James started out at the hedge fund Brightwater Associates. His background in both finance and technology led him to really being able to focus on risk investing. At Creative Ventures, they tend to look at the biggest problems facing the world at the moment and go after those with the same focus. Jame...

On this episode, Hall is joined by Rodolfo Bellesi of Ikove Capital, a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization in the Midwest. An engineer, Rodolfo actually started his career with real estate development out of Boston. He later returned to his alma mater, Ohio State, where he began investing in university technology. R...

On this episode, Hall is joined by Flavio Lobato of Ikove Capital, a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization in the Midwest. Hailing from Brazil, Flavio started his career in investment banking after graduating business school. He then went to work with Goldman Sachs in the 90's and then began to focus on alternative in...

On this episode Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Mendy Ouzillou of MMOmentum Consulting. In this episode, Mendy illuminates the concept of 'points of friction'. As Mendy explains, points of friction are any number of things that get in the way of achieving your goals. Mendy focuses on how this concept applies to pre-money startups and pre-revenue businesses, and what they can do to minimize points...

In this episode, Hall is joined by Rita Sudheer of Asa Ventures. As the episode begins, you'll learn about Rita's background prior to Asa Ventures- Arif Saiyad & Associados (ASA) Ventures, established in 2003 in Portugal and headquartered in Dubai, works on hybrid models of Venture Capital. Rita talks about the state of venture investing in the UAE and the Middle East, and how is the industry evol...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Nathan Low of Raanana Ziontech Partners. With a background in semiconductor production, logistics, and manufacturing, Nathan started his angel investing career in Israel, eventually expanding to New York and Silicon Valley. Nathan first discusses the importance of diversification for Angel investors, before diving into his experience as an investi...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Dougal Cameron of Golden Section Ventures. Dougal came to investing through his family, which provided him operational insight into an investor perspective. Dougal talks about how he and Isaac Shi founded Golden Section Ventures and came into the B2B Enterprise SaaS space. Dougal provides advice investors in the B2B Enterprise space. He highlights...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Skyler Fernandes of Venture University. Skyler has an extensive background in venture capital and private equity. Venture University, now over a year old, is a multistage venture fund, primarily focused on the seed and series A stage. Venture University sources deals from several areas, including consumer enterprise, Fintech, blockchain healthcare...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Chris Fisher of Click Ventures. With a background in corporate IT, Chris started his angel investing career in Hong Kong, where he eventually teamed up with Carman Chan of Click Ventures. Chris explains how Click Ventures focuses on primarily series A startups using network effects. He explains how network effects can lower customer acquisition co...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Jay Joshi of MD Angels. Jay, a physician by training, went through undergrad and medical school at the same time in an accelerated medical program. It was there he discovered that he looks at medicine a little differently than the traditional physician. He felt his perspective was different and he thought that would translate into hospital adminis...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Steve Shapiro of eHealth Ventures. Before eHealth, Steve spent years in the cell phone industry before transitioning to a career in consulting and angel investing. He partnered with Israeli-based digital health investor Talor Sax in creating eHealth Ventures, a digital health incubator with a focus on Israeli innovation. Steve explains how he came...

In this episode, Chris gives his thoughts on how the industry is evolving. He discusses how we are headed towards e-commerce first or e-commerce only, not as a supplement to physical retail. You'll also get his advice to those investing in this space as well as challenges and risks.

In this episode, Hall interviews Lawrence Lerner of Pithia, an investment firm focusing on "blockchain realism". Pithia's thesis emphasizes foundational businesses that enable blockchain infrastructure.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Jake Moilanen of Seraph Group. As we kick off, Jake talks about what he did prior to investing in early stage startups. A self described geek, Jake started out working in computer programming. After getting out of that space, and getting his MBA, he headed to Silicon Valley and began immersing himself in the startup world, which eventually led to...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Jake Moilanen of Seraph Group. As we kick off, Jake talks about what he did prior to investing in early stage startups. A self described geek, Jake started out working in computer programming. After getting out of that space, and getting his MBA, he headed to Silicon Valley and began immersing himself in the startup world, which eventually led to...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Venture Partners. Nicole focuses on early stage consumer technology companies, having invested in companies such as Zola, Rothy's, Daily Harvest, Dote, Brandable, Girlboss and Goop. Nicole spent nearly a decade at Morgan Stanley covering the European and US e-commerce, retail and consumer companies. In 2014, she went to...

In this episode, Hall interviews John Pope and James Walker of WellDog, an energy-focused technical services company that provides practical engineering and business solutions in a high volume, cost effective manner with a remarkable customer focus.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Kalman Saffran of Summa Management. As the episode kicks off, Kal speaks about his background before Summa Management. A self described businessman/scientist/engineer, Kal started out at the laboratory of the nucleus science at MIT. He then became an entrepreneur founding three companies, one of which is Summa Management. In between MIT and buildi...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Mick Connors, CEO and Founder at Anytime Pediatrics and Anytime Telehealth, Inc. Mick was inspired to get into the medical field and pediatrics after his brother passed away from pediatric cancer before he was born. It's been a lifelong passion. In his career in pediatric emergency medicine he is seeing more and more fragmentation of care, with ch...

In this episode of Investor Connect, Hall is joined by Jon Glesinger and Leslie Ackerman of Comprindeo. Jon started his career in the tech sector in the 80's, coming out with the first IBM computers. This then led him to his first computer startup involving design of CAD/CAM. Working extensively with unstructured data around people led Jon to build platforms in the HR space, ultimately leading to...

Hall is joined by Donald Stalter of Global Founders Capital. After graduating from the University of Chicago, Donald started out as an investment banker at Credit Suisse in the MNA group in San Francisco. While there, he handled deals like Google/YouTube and Google/DoubleClick which led to the opportunity to do deals in Brazil and in Europe. This peaked his interest on the international side very...

In this episode, Hall interviews Yoon Choi of Forest Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investments in innovative technologies in the areas of mobility, AI, and data analytics. Yoon provides some broad advice for early-stage investors, and highlights some of the developments and trends in the mobility industry, including electric vehicles, autonomy, and data processing and an...

In this episode, Hall interviews Michel Wendell of Nexit Ventures, the oldest and most experienced VC fund in Finland, focusing on digital disruption. Michel Wendell has 20 years of broad experience in launching and managing international Infocom companies, with expertise in the changing dynamics of globalizing markets and rapidly developing technologies. Michel provides some broad advice for inve...

In this episode, Hall interviews Mary Ann Azevedo, business writer for Crunchbase News. Crunchbase is the leading destination for millions of users to discover industry trends, investments, and news about global companies–from startups to the Fortune 1000. Mary Ann and Hall focus their discussion on the construction tech sector. Historically, the construction industry is one that has been slow to...

In this episode, Hall talks with Bill Leake, CEO of Apogee Results, an Austin-based digital marketing agency. Bill and Hall discuss how companies can move their marketing functions from a startup stage to a growth stage company. Bill briefly talks about his extensive and varied professional background. Bill and Hall then discuss some of the differences between marketing at startup companies and ma...