The VentureFizz Podcast

Music is a passion of mine. Technology is a passion of mine. Digital marketing is a passion of mine. So, what if you could roll up all three into one… well, you’d have Gupta Media and that is why you’ll hear the fan boy come out several times during my interview with Gogi. He takes us down the journey of his agency, Gupta Media, and how it has brought the modern world of performance marketing to t...

Serial entrepreneur, inventor, angel investor, film producer, commencement address speaker, world traveler… These are just some of the words that describe Wayne and it all started at a young age when he discovered the world of technology. It was this world that would lead him down the path to building a very successful future. Wayne has a history of recognizing technology trends before they hit ma...

My coffee is shipped to me every two weeks and it is outstanding. It is on a subscription and therefore, it’s one less thing that I need to think about getting at the grocery store. In return, the brand has me locked in as a loyal customer where I’m not tempted by the other options while walking down the aisle. It’s such a win-win! Subscription Commerce or Relationship Commerce, as Ordergroove has...

We have such a great and inspirational story to share with you from this interview with Moah, who prefers to go by her last name btw. It goes something like this - immigrant founder, attends MIT, starts to build a career in User Experience (UX), becomes the co-founder of a category creating product, where she is now the CEO, and the company proceeds to grow with very little capital raised… and it’...

At this point, it’s assumed that companies have a content strategy pulled together for their marketing plan. However, even though content marketing is not a new concept, it is still really difficult to get it right. The challenge is on multiple levels. You need to consistently write content that is meaningful and not loaded with keywords and links that add no value to the article. Search engines a...

As with most entrepreneurs, you never forget the people who supported you from the early days of the company. I first met Matt towards the end of 2009. VentureFizz had recently launched and I was looking for advertising sponsors to help fund future development of the site. At that point in time, Matt was heading up marketing for a company called uTest (now called Applause) and they were looking to...

Launching and scaling a successful company typically takes bold entrepreneurs who are willing to take the risk of building something in a market that doesn’t exist yet. They look at the world differently and they have a vision that some might think is crazy. But, it’s these entrepreneurs that go on to define markets and scale companies at unicorn valuations. In the case of Formlabs, Max and his co...

Calendly, Zoom, Dropbox, Canva - are all great examples of Product-led Growth companies or what is commonly known as PLG for short. So, what is PLG? As defined on OpenView’s website, PLG is an end user-focused growth model that relies on the product itself as the primary driver of customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion. It’s a term that was actually coined by Blake in 2016 and has become...

It’s very rare for a company to make it to the public markets. It’s even rarer to have the founder of the company as its CEO throughout the full lifecycle to that IPO milestone. EngageSmart provides vertically tailored customer engagement software and integrated payments solutions. The company went public back in September of last year and Bob had the honor of ringing the bell of the New York Stoc...

Companies strive to build a strong culture that will hopefully be the foundation for success. In the case of Seth, having a People First culture is the priority and it is why they operate with an upside down org chart. When you think about it, the upside down org chart makes a ton of sense. Aren’t leaders the ones who are ultimately working for their reports to do whatever it takes to ensure the s...

There is so much disruption happening in the healthcare industry, it is truly an exciting time. Just last week, we published our interview with Sean Duffy, Co-Founder & CEO of Omada Health, which is helping people who are dealing with chronic conditions achieve long term improvements and if you go into the archives of The VentureFizz Podcast, you’ll find lots of other discussions with healthcare e...

There’s so much going on in the healthcare industry. It is truly a transformative time that spans across the full spectrum whether it’s advancements in medicine, operational improvements, and more, there is obviously no shortage of innovation and an opportunity to make a meaningful impact. Thus, I always get excited when I get a chance to interview an entrepreneur who is scaling a company in this...

A disproportionate amount of capital invested into companies does not go to gender diverse teams and it’s a problem. It’s a problem and an issue that I’ve brought up multiple times in this podcast as I hope the continuous awareness of this issue creates a positive impact over time. Based on Lori’s background and the focus on her firm, it was a perfect opportunity to find out if we are making some...

On Upper90’s website you’ll find the following phrase: It’s not how much you raise… it’s how much you own. It’s a very compelling statement that makes a ton of sense, yet every day in the world of tech news, there’s a concentration on the size of the round and company’s valuation. Wouldn’t it be cool if they also reported how much of the company the founders still own? Since the entrepreneurs are...

Dr. Meisha-ann Martin, Director, People Analytics at Workhuman, joined us to discuss how the great resignation will shape and impact the future of the workforce. As part of this webinar, we covered: * What is The Great Resignation and why does it matter? * Details from Workhuman's survey & Bureau of Labor statistics. * Why are people looking for a new opportunity? * More details on the type of fle...

The negotiation dance… some might enjoy it, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people probably don’t, especially when it comes to purchasing software. It’s like a known fact that if you wait until the end of the quarter, you’ll likely get a better rate versus if you purchase the same product at the beginning of the quarter. It was Ryan’s experience in sales that opened his eyes to...

The world of sports and media has been radically changing. Not to date myself, but I remember back in college, it seemed like ESPN was continuously on. It was our go-to for breaking news and SportsCenter gave us the scores and highlights from the day prior. Now, you go to Twitter and other social media outlets if you need to find out what happened or to catch the highlights from a game. As part of...

Lars is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits, as he has built companies to capitalize on the growth of mobile adoption. It’s a fun discussion and a nice trip down mobile memory lane, like remember when you would get billed by your mobile carrier if you purchased a ring-tone? Not only has Lars had successful exits but his last two companies have been acquired by two world-class orga...

It’s a Zoom world that we are living in these days as it relates to meetings. Yes, Zoom became a verb and the company experienced insane levels of growth from the pandemic… but let’s face it, the future of work has also changed with most companies embracing remote work and the world of online meetings are here to stay. So, if this is the way of the world, shouldn’t your online meeting experience a...

I’m excited that there is a renewed interest in space and new goals that seem aggressive, like traveling to Mars for example. But as we’ve witnessed in the past, when the most brilliant and ambitious people work on a challenge, the improbable becomes probable. Natalya is one of these pioneers, who as a child dreamed of becoming an astronaut. She actually applied to NASA twice but was unfortunately...

For this podcast, I’ve interviewed lots of Venture Capitalists, who talk about their portfolio of investments in companies, but where does this capital come from? When a VC firm announces it’s latest fund of $100M or $1B, who is providing this capital? Well, It’s typically pension funds, university endowment funds, family offices, or high net worth individuals. The investors in these funds are cal...

This is a long overdue episode, as I’ve been wanting to interview Joe for our podcast for quite some time. Joe has been a long time supporter of VentureFizz and was one of our earliest contributors. If you look into the archives of VentureFizz, you’ll find lots of blog posts where he shares advice on tech trends and building companies. What’s great about Joe is the level of transparency that he sh...

Technology Analyst, Venture Capitalist, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, Movie Producer… these are just some of the roles that Todd has held throughout his career. His track record as a VC is very impressive, but could his latest initiative be his most successful yet? Todd and his Co-Founder, Jeff Morin, are jumping into the home connected fitness ring with Liteboxer. The company recently announced a...

This is a first! It’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to interview both a founder and an investor in the same episode. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but after conducting the interview, I think this might be an interesting format to consider moving forward. We obviously discussed all the details about Vecna Robotics, the autonomous mobile robot and workflow orchestration company, but it wa...

From this podcast, I get to interview lots of highly accomplished entrepreneurs, however it’s not every day that you get to interview a successful entrepreneur, investor, Head of Brand at a fast growing startup, a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, author, .. oh and…. and a four time US national champion for gymnastics...and a Hall of Fame gymnast. Needless to say, we cover a lot of ground and it’s an...