The VentureFizz Podcast

Becoming an influencer for a particular topic is very challenging. It’s hard to build up a following at scale. It requires a lot of work in terms of building up an effective content, social media, and speaker strategy to build up engagement. As a serial entrepreneur, not only was I interested in learning about Larry's journey around building companies, but I was also interested in learning how he...

The world of cybersecurity gets a lot of attention in companies and enterprises, but when you look at what’s happen with consumers, the numbers for cybercrime and identity theft are staggering. Here are some stats: According to a report from the FBI, Americans lost more than $10B last year to cybercrime. According to the FTC, there were 1.1 million reports of identity theft in 2022. 71% of Veteran...

The business of doing good. It is an area where companies can build a profitable organization while doing something that is socially responsible. Companies like TOMS and Patagonia are great examples. For JC, she had a successful career, but it lacked fulfilment and she finally hit a breaking point where it was time for a change. From taking the entrepreneurial leap and build a responsibly farmed f...

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase - data is the new oil. It makes sense as it is data and of course other techonogical advancements that are powering the growth and use of AI in different industries. But even with all the buzz about AI, data has been the key differentiating factor for companies and a strategic advantage for years and years. It has been a key component for Scott’s success in the ret...

If you’ve listened to this podcast in the past, you probably know that I’m an avid fan of tech history. There’s nothing like a legendary founding story of a company that completed disrupted an industry. Well, I have an amazing episode today that is going to cover a lot of ground at several ground-breaking, platform shift companies. I’m talking about the stories of legendary companies or products l...

It is hard enough to build a startup in a heavily regulated industry like healthcare, but what do you do when your biggest competitor who is publicly traded files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection? It can be discouraging… or it can be an opportunity. In the case of DynamiCare Health, it is hopefully an opportunity… an opportunity to build a world class company that is helping to improve the liv...

Rember when you needed a full tech team to launch a simple brochureware website? Now you can just jump on Wix or Squarespace and spin up a well designed, responsive website in seconds. The rise of the no-code movement has helped increase the pace and usefulness of technology and it has transcended into lots of other applications and use cases. It’s a win - win, as business users can create applica...

When you have an idea to start a company that monopolizes your thinking, it’s probably a good sign to take that leap of faith into the entrepreneurial waters. In the case of Bobby, he had wanted to start his own company for a long time and he finally had that idea that he couldn’t shake from his head. It was his years and years of experience in the fintech industry and trends around BNPL (Buy Now...

The career path to a CEO position at a tech company is not linear. If you look at the background of CEOs, there are many different roads. It could be operations, product management, marketing, or other functional areas. In Frank’s case, he ran several teams including sales and professional services. Some might believe that the CEO’s role is to be the Chief Decision Making Officer, but as Frank sha...

There are so many companies that have been born out of the mobile revolution and some of these companies, while looking back, seems so obvious. But, in the early days of mobile - I’m talking pre-iPhone, pre-App Store days, it was the risk-takers like Rodger who set out to solve really difficult problems that set the stage for the future. Whether if it was leveraging mobile phones for microfinance...

It’s impressive when an entrepreneur builds a company from scratch that ultimately scales, but I think it is even more impressive when you can combine a strong social mission to a company that scales, as well. This is what Rodney and his Co-Founder, Travis Holoway, have built with SoLo Funds, a leading community finance platform focused on underserved communities. It’s a marketplace where you can...

Fate, luck, destiny… whatever you call it, it seems very apparent that all three founders of Bevi were meant to build a company together. They all shared a common interest in sustainability, a desire to build a company, and experience in a field that had water at its core. Eliza grew up sailing and was always interested in ocean stewardship which led her down the path of evaluating different ideas...

What do the following brands have in common? Casamigos, Skims, Fenty Beauty, Aviation Gin, and Beats by Dre. Well, they all have a celebrity as a co-founder. While celebrities can land a lucrative endorsement deal, it pales in comparison to what the outcome can be if you own part of a company that is successful. The pairing of a brand with a celebrity founder just makes sense as one of the core in...

It goes without saying, but we need more capital going towards female founded companies. While we still have a long way to go, there has been some progress in this regard with dedicated funds like XFactor Ventures. The fund, which is focused on pre-seed and seed investments, was launched in 2017 by Flybridge with Anna as a Co-Founder with a strategy of having women founders invest in other women f...

For non-technical founders, the thought of building a tech startup might seem very intimidating and downright impossible. But for Jordan, what started out as a blog with editorial recommendations evolved to something much greater and to kickstart her product, she kept it simple. She thought through how the product might work by drawing rectangles of each screen. Later, she would learn that she was...

One piece of advice that many successful entrepreneurs share with other founders is to wait as long as possible before you raise outside funding. The longer you can stay as a successful bootstrapped company, the more leverage you will have when you are finally ready to raise capital and negative the company’s valuation. For Oisin and his Co-Founder, Mike Flynn, they took a very smart approach to b...

Unless you were already in the sector, topics within the manufacturing and supply chain industry were probably not on the radar for most people. As consumers, when you went to the store, you bought what you needed and that was that. However, people became very aware of the importance that these industries play in our lives during the pandemic when everything changed. Supply chain and manufacturing...

Many entrepreneurs have aspirations to make an impact and change the world, which is admirable. However, building a company that impacts billions is obviously very hard and very rare. In the case of Rich Miner, his professional career has been very successful on several levels including the change the world category. As a co-founder of Wildfire, he was part of the team that built the world’s first...

I first met Sravish about 10 years ago. It was an era where there was a resurgence in the Boston tech scene. A new level of excitement that was fueled by a crop of young entrepreneurs who were building companies that were powered by accelerators or incubators like Techstars, Dogpatch Labs, Bolt, and others. What is great about this era in the Boston tech scene is that many of these entrepreneurs,...

Building a startup is tough in any industry, but for a healthcare startup, there is a whole different level of complexity. It is a heavily regulated industry that has been slow to change in terms of digital transformation. As you’ll hear from Troy, the majority of healthcare records are transmitted via a fax machine. How is that possible in our modern world of technology? But, it is opportunities...

I was excited to interview Rick for The VentureFizz Podcast, as he has a very unique background in terms of scaling great retail and restaurant brands like Borders, Panera Bread, and Wahlburgers, which was a startup at the time when he joined as CEO. Sure in the case of Wahlburgers, it is helpful when the owners are celebrities and you have an A&E reality show to support the company, but regardles...

Who are the tech companies in the Boston tech scene that are going to scale and become the next anchor companies like Rapid7, CarGurus, Amwell, or DraftKings? If I was pulling together a list of companies, I would definitely add Fairmarkit to the short-list. The company is revolutionizing the way organizations buy and sell through automated sourcing. It is a massive market in a sector that has bee...

You likely know these companies: Eventbrite, Canva, Houzz - so, what do all of these companies have in common other than being incredibly successful? All of the companies were founded by a married couple. Most of the interviews that I’ve had for the podcastare one on one with a few exceptions of talking to a couple of co-founders at once or even a founder and their investor for the podcast, but th...

Are we entering the primetime era for venture capital investments into Artificial Intelligence or AI startups? It at least seems that way, as things have cooled off with Web 3 and crypto. There is a ton of momentum in this space with lots of use cases including Jasper, an AI copywriting and content platform that recently announced $125M in funding. Or, it will be interesting to see what companies...

There is a growing number of VC firms that are focused on investing in diverse founders. It’s a very important trend, as I believe these firms will continue to build a foundation that leads to more investing in great companies regardless of the founder’s gender or ethnic background. VamosVentures is one of these firms that is focused on changing the dynamic. 100% of the firm’s portfolio is diverse...