The VentureFizz Podcast

Many successful entrepreneurs disrupt industries with innovative ideas, but how many can say their disruption actually helped create and jumpstart a whole industry that is massive. Chris has been involved in the cybersecurity industry since the beginning as a member of the elite hacker think tank in the 90’s called the L0pht, which went on to testify before the U.S. Senate about cybersecurity and...

A sign of a great entrepreneur is someone who has the drive, the hustle, and that unique ability to not only recognize opportunities where things can improve, but also the ability to follow through and take action to create something. This entrepreneurial trait for Shanel started at a young age, as she remembers selling her art work at family BBQs and it only continued to build from there. She lat...

What do these three things have in common: ESPN, the Olympics, and ABC News? Rob was an on-air contributor for all three. As you’ll learn from our interview, he has a very unique background in the media industry. Not only was he on-air, but he also worked in business development and in the investment arm of media companies as well, which is very rare in terms of working on both sides of the equati...

Peter has a tremendous track record of success as a CEO for fast growing tech companies and scaling them to a successful exit. He’s done it several times and Snyk is on pace to become another anchor tech company in the area. What’s interesting to note about Peter is the fact that it was a career pivot from a role as a Controller into tech sales that helped catapult his career into an executive lea...

Grant’s entrepreneurial experience started as a paperboy. He noticed that the real business model of newspaper companies was the ads. This triggered an idea that he could help small businesses with advertising too. Through the encouragement of his dad, Grant started cold calling and learned the great business lesson of what it’s like to get a bunch of “no’s” but when you finally land on that “yes”...

Imagine that you’ve worked your way into an executive leadership position with one of the top insurance companies where you are overseeing an organization of hundreds of people generating billions of dollars, yet you realize that you are a builder and there’s an opportunity to build a company around an idea. So what do you do? Do you stay at the safety net of the Fortune 500 company or do you take...

This is an exciting episode because Paul is my first repeat guest on the podcast! I interviewed him about 2.5 years ago for Episode 37 where we spent a lot of time talking about his background and all the details around KAYAK and Lola.com. This time around, we took a slightly different approach. We of course caught up on Lola.com, which as you may remember is focused on helping companies with busi...

Did you know that rowing works 86% of your muscles? It provides a full-body workout that puts less stress on your joints, yet it’s been an under-rated exercise in terms of popularity. Maybe that’s because of accessibility, as rowing on the water is not as easy to pull off as it is to run and cycle outside and let’s face it, the old style rowing machines in gyms were never really that appealing. Te...

It’s 2021 - Happy New Year to everyone! We are kicking off the new year with an amazing episode, as my guest is Paul Liberman, President, Global Technology and Products & Co-Founder of DraftKings. The story of DraftKings has all the twists and turns of a Hollywood movie. It has the classic beginning of three co-founders looking to radically transform an industry, but this story is not a linear pat...

This is episode #200...yes, we are at another milestone episode! Three years ago we kicked off The VentureFizz Podcast to bring you the amazing stories from leading entrepreneurs and investors. It’s been a blast and I want to say thank you to Alex, who made it happen initially, Dan, who is our podcast editor, and of course a special shout-out to all of our amazing guests! For Episode 200, I’m real...

"Let’s schedule some time to meet” is a common phrase that you’ll hear multiple times a day. Sounds simple, but it’s not, especially the more people who are involved. It starts an endless amount of back & forth to coordinate schedules. It’s a problem that affects everyone and there have been attempts to solve this problem with things like online scheduling tools, but no one has gotten it right. Th...

The world needs more risk takers, big thinkers, and problem solvers that are willing to take on the really hard problems that need to be solved. As you’ll hear from this interview, the world needs more Eden’s. She started her first company in high school which was focused on improving energy and water access in the developing world. She left Princeton to pursue an opportunity as a Theil Fellow as...

Starting a business is hard. Starting a business during a pandemic is even harder. Let’s put another layer on top… starting an events business where people are in person during a pandemic… well, timing is everything. But, the best entrepreneurs persevere and find another way and it’s sometimes when you are forced to pivot that ends up being the game changing move for success. Ian is a serial entre...

It’s incredibly rare for a co-founder to remain as CEO at a company for as long as Art has, especially when the company has been involved in multiple financing rounds from venture capital and private equity firms, which says a lot about Art’s leadership style and his ability to stay focused. A key part of this focus is being the best solution for a specific industry. In Bullhorn’s case, it is buil...

Siobhan was part of the early team at Communispace, now known as C Space, which was a big win for the Boston tech scene. The company scaled aggressively and was acquired by Omnicom in 2011. Siobhan joined MassChallenge in 2016 as its Chief Operating Officer and was promoted to CEO last year. MassChallenge is a global, zero-equity accelerator that was established in 2009, shortly after the financia...

Did you know that resumes have been around for over 500 years, yet why is it that resumes haven’t really evolved? Sure, maybe a LinkedIn profile is a digital version of you… but companies generally look for a copy of your resume when you apply to a job. Paul has built a career largely focused on pushing the industry forward with a better way, as he was the founder of a company that was early to us...

Digital asset management is not a new term, but the number of assets that are being generated by companies is exploding, which in return makes it very challenging to collaborate and keep tabs of everything. Take VentureFizz, we have videos, audio files, images and more spread throughout Google Drive, Dropbox, Canva, multiple hard drives, and probably several other spots that I’m forgetting. Air is...

The Fintech industry has been blowing up over the past few years with lots of innovative advances and solutions. From digital products geared towards consumers like Robinhood and Lemonade which logged a very successful IPO back in July. To more of the foundation tech layer with platforms like Stripe for online payments and Plaid that was acquired by Visa for a reported $5.3B. Alloy is right in the...

It’s incredibly impressive to see what Edward has accomplished throughout his career. He’s a serial entrepreneur, board member, and an investor in over 200 companies… and he’s still in his twenties. His latest company is called Conduit, which he founded with Sree Kolli. Conduit is creating a highly curated and value added marketplace with the goal of connecting the best operator investors and foun...

David and I go way back. We first met when he was the Executive Director of TUGG, a non-profit embedded in the tech industry in Boston. He is now back to his roots living in Rochester, NY which has a growing tech scene with several startups and lots of great academic institutions. Impellent Ventures is a fund that is supporting early stage startups. The firm has made investments in multiple region...

In these podcast interviews, you’ve probably heard me talk about my background in recruiting. I ran a search firm called Dissero and product management was a core area of specialty. Thus, I was really excited to interview Nate, as he is one of the top product leaders in the tech industry and it was an opportunity to really geek out on the topic of product management. We discuss lots of great topic...

I always think the best ideas for a business are from entrepreneurs who are tackling the problems they have faced in the real world. As you’ll hear from this episode, NeighborSchools is a perfect example. Finding quality and affordable child care is a tricky thing and when you factor in the COVID-19 world we are living in, the stakes are even higher. It was this challenge that Bridget was facing a...

Sam is an investor and entrepreneur, who is one of the top product leaders in the tech scene. After leading product at BzzAgent and HubSpot, he went on to be a co-founder at InsightSquared, the leading provider of revenue intelligence solutions. At Accomplice, he is focused on making investments in B2B software and marketplace companies. He’s also part of the faculty at Harvard Business School whe...

Did you know that 2.3B people in the world seek help for skin issues every year? Two-thirds of these cases are evaluated by non-specialists and the shocking statistic is that 50% of these cases are misdiagnosed. It’s a challenge because there are not enough dermatologists and most physicians only spend one week learning dermatology in medical school. So, what if you could leverage AI and computer...

CareAcademy recently announced its Series A round of funding, but I need to put this accomplishment into perspective. Raising capital is hard for any entrepreneur, but Helen had some extra obstacles in her way - a pandemic, she is a female founder, and a Black entrepreneur. The percentages for each independent scenario for raising capital are not favorable, never mind putting everything all togeth...