Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures

One of the most concrete ways users experience a modern startup is through the design of the app itself. Small choices in design and implementation can sway a user from becoming a fan or never opening the app again. Our guest today is Robin Rotman , Director of Design and Founder of ARE TOO , a design agency that focuses on UX/UI and Branding. About Robin Rotman: Robin Rotman is the Design Directo...

Communicating with investors is delicate — being open and transparent is always the preferred method here at Ripple, but that openness sometimes requires thoughtful framing, especially when dealing with private companies and investments. Our guest today is Matt Curtolo , Managing Director at Allocate , an Alternative investment platform allowing greater access to high-performing venture funds. Mat...

One of the biggest factors in whether you receive outsized returns as a VC is how your portfolio is constructed. A single investment can create outsized returns which can be lost if your portfolio construction is flawed. Our guest today is Alex Edelson , Founder and GP of Slipstream Investors , a noted and up-and-coming Fund of Funds who has done a lot of work in Portfolio Construction. We get his...

Matt Roberts is a veteran of the Canadian tech and venture scene. In Silicon Valley, his story would be somewhat common, a young talented tech person, the child of a computer pioneer, moves up the ranks through mentorship and gains wealth and stature through savvy choices and a little luck. However, in Canada, these stories are far less common and therefore more exciting to share. This is a fun tr...

Source: Canada’s Venture Capital Landscape Report (2023) — BDC Objective The venture capital landscape is a dynamic and ever-evolving environment, where success is measured not only by achieving high valuations but also by generating strong returns for investors. As we saw companies climb Mount Everest to unicorn statuses in the past 18 months, many failed to get back down safely to survive. It is...

That Sheel Mohnot , Founding Partner of BTV , is a natural storyteller and a good hang, you can just figure that out with his Twitter feed and his track record of creating one of the most popular startup podcasts . That he also happens to be one of the sharpest minds in FinTech investing which makes him an exceedingly interesting guest. This is a wide-ranging conversation that covers Sheel’s early...

Big news this week with Matt and John, we cover Cohere raising $270M at a $2.1B valuation (02:24), Salesforce announcing their AI platform that may be vaporware (06:27), Shopify selling its delivery business (09:50), Nasdaq acquires Adenza for $10.5B (13:40), and TCV and Tiger missing their fund goals (15:43). A word from our sponsor: The team at Ripple is always focused on helping our founders an...

Shaking up the format this week by focusing on what’s happening in the world. We welcome back Mark McQueen to dive into what’s been going on in the world with a lively discussion. Hope you enjoy! A word from our sponsor: The team at Ripple is always focused on helping our founders and portfolio companies find the best partners to work with within the tech and venture capital ecosystem. And that is...

It’s always fun to reconnect with past guests and early success stories from our Ripple Community, and today’s guest is both, Emily Lonetto was a Tank Talks guest back when it was a small in-person event at our co-working space, The Tank. Back then she was the first leadership hire at our portfolio-company Voiceflow , now she’s the Director of Community at Webflow as well as a Venture Partner with...

There’s a lot going on in the world today, and one of the Canadians who has been plugged into the pulse of Ottawa, Venture Capital, and Banking is our guest, Mark McQueen , Founder of Wellington Growth Partners and former President of CIBC Innovation Banking. We had a great conversation about what’s happening in Canada and globally in the markets, and how we should think about events as entreprene...

Elements that make up a strong startup ecosystem are founders and talent to execute the vision, investors with capital, and finally journalists that are documenting what the founders and investors are doing. Without that coverage, it’s difficult to attract more founders and more investors which are needed to create a vibrant ecosystem that will hopefully have a larger impact on society. Our guest...

It’s not surprising that one of the pioneers of online dating believes that being open to options and new ideas will help your life and career. Sam Yagan is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Corazon Capital , an early-stage firm based in Chicago with a MidWest focus. But Sam is most known for Co-Founding OKCupid! and moving up to become the CEO of Match Group, where he helped launch Tinder. This...

Analytics has led to a revolution in how we approach many aspects of modern life, from how we field a baseball team to when is the right time to send a tweet. And now data and analytics are reinventing how LPs view Venture Funds and how those funds invest. Our guest today uses powerful analytics to help her clients participate in Venture investing at scale, Jamie Rhode, CFA is Principal at Verdis...

The tables have turned on our host Matt Cohen who was recently a guest on the BetaKit podcast and had a spirited discussion about the recent meltdown of RenoRun. BetaKit features weekly podcasts discussing Canadian technology news and global startup news from a Canadian perspective and it was an honour to be a guest on the show. You can listen to the whole episode where Matt shares the history of...

Bringing offline businesses online, known as digital transformation, is a huge opportunity. There are entire industries where the efficiencies of digital tools and workflows haven’t penetrated. That’s changing with the market today valued at $535B and anticipated to grow to $3.3T in the next decade. Out guest today is helping lead that transition in the health and wellness services space. Matt Dan...

Finding a big problem to solve with your startup is always the goal, but what happens if that problem lies outside of what is deemed sexy by investors? Our guest today is Josh Domigues , Founder and CEO of Flashfood , an app that allows shoppers to browse food items approaching their best-before date, buy them at a discount and pick them up in-store. Expiring food is a global problem and is one of...

Getting into competitive venture deals is difficult enough when you aren’t a huge name-brand VC, and doing it from another country is even more challenging. Our guest today, Yatong Li is Managing Director at Sixty Degree Capital , a cross-sector firm that invests in software, digital infrastructure, healthcare, and biotech companies across multiple stages as early as Series A and as late as pre-IP...

Startups take longer than anticipated, the average exit takes between 7 and 10 years. Even overnight successes are the product of years of behind-the-scenes work. This is as it should be, but the problem comes if you’re not in love with finding and solving the core problem of your startup (or if the market itself doesn’t actually have that problem). Our guest today is Adit Gupta , CEO and Co-Found...

We start this week’s episode with John Ruffolo and Matt discussing the SVB and Regional banking crisis taking over the headlines recently. It’s a candid discussion about what went down and how it's affecting the global startup ecosystem. We then talk with Connor Atchison, Founder and CEO of Wisedocs. Wisedocs is helping streamline and transform medical information with its artificial intelligence...

Raising a round of financing is always a stressful endeavour. But in today’s economic climate, it’s even more so. So how can a founder navigate these choppy waters and not lose their shirts? Our guest today is Peter Hass , Associate Partner at Maverix Private Equity . Peter knows the ins and outs of deal structure and has guidance for founders at all stages to help them raise capital. Peter broke...

Seeing life through fresh eyes is a trait that can get lost in today’s noisy world. When you bring a perspective of a beginner, not knowing what is impossible, you can sometimes transcend conventional wisdom and achieve greatness. Immigrants can bring a fresh perspective and couple it with a focused effort to succeed. Our guest today is Hamed Abbasi , Co-Founder and CEO of Plooto , who is both a s...

Finding founders with true visions that have a real plan to execute those visions is rare. So rare that those founders are actually called unicorns. But finding and supporting those founders takes a lot of patience and skill. Today’s guest has both of those traits, Stephanie Palmeri , Partner at NextView Ventures , has been working at the top of the venture industry for more than a decade and has...

An often undervalued aspect of the startup world is the importance of building a brand. How you represent your company and its values visually can really add value to your company. Our guest today is Sarah Dobson , founder of Design of Brand (affectionately known as D.O.B.), a specialized brand consultancy for Entrepreneurs. She is both a strategist and designer that uses research and creativity t...

There are many vices but few things can match when you create a business that changes the world. Our guest today, Corey Holmes Co-Founder of Popup , knows that feeling and has literally been around the globe to chase that high. We caught up with him in Dubai to discuss Popup, a no-code platform designed to empower new e-commerce experiences as well as his addiction to entrepreneurship. About Corey...

Being an investor in the early stages of companies has a lot of responsibility. You know the money you are putting in is a vote of confidence, but your role is even more important, you become a sounding board, a mentor, and in the best cases, a friend to the founder. Our guest today is Sam Haffar , Partner at Real Ventures , and he knows this road very well. This was a great chat and it was wonder...