071 [Fundraising Special Series] Kendrick Nguyen is the founder of Republic, an investing platform that allows everyone to invest in private companies, including startups, real estate, video games and crypto. Prior to Republic, he was the general counsel at AngelList. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of...
May 31, 2021•57 min•Ep. 71
070 [Fundraising Special Series] Vinay Hiremath is the co-founder and CTO at Loom, one of the fastest growing startups in Silicon Valley. Recently, Loom received a $130 million series C investment backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, General Catalyst and Iconiq Capital, bringing the valuation to $1.53 Billion. Loom has been rated as one of the top 10 startups on Linkedin and Vinay was featured on Forbes 30 under 30 back in 2018. https://www.SmartVen...
May 24, 2021•50 min•Ep. 70
069 Ekta Chopra is the Chief Digital Officer at E.L.F. BEAUTY, where she leverages cutting-edge technology to help the company maximize growth. In 2019 E.L.F. Beauty closed down all the physical stores and focused on online sales. Now E.L.F. is one of the top Gen Z favorite brands. Prior to E.L.F., she was the director of technology at The James Irvine Foundation and she led technology in companies in multiple different sectors such as retail and aerospace. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Tw...
May 17, 2021•48 min•Ep. 69
068 Chris Slowe is the CTO and founding engineer at Reddit. He helped build Reddit, sold it, and has recently come back with the other co-founders to rebuild the platform. He is currently leading the engineering division and the architectures at Reddit. Prior to Reddit, he holds a PhD in Physics from Harvard University. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each epi...
May 10, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 68
067 Sanchan S Saxena is the VP of Product at Coinbase. Prior to Coinbase, he was the General Manager at Airbnb where he led a cross-functional team managing product management, engineering, design and other functions for Airbnb Plus. Prior to Airbnb, he spent time at Facebook and Instagram, where he founded and led the Instagram Shopping product, amongst other product areas. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube...
May 04, 2021•58 min•Ep. 67
066 Vanessa Liu is a VP at SAP leading the SAP.iO Foundries North America team to invest in women and diverse-led B2B intelligent enterprise start-ups, including AI, Blockchain, data analytics, machine learning, and many others. Prior to that, Vanessa was the COO of Trigger Media Group, a venture studio based in New York City. She holds a JD from Harvard Law School and worked at McKinsey & Company for over 10 years. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGon...
Apr 27, 2021•51 min•Ep. 66
065 Matt Cooper is the CEO of Skillshare, where he leads a community-driven platform for online learning and professional development. Prior to that he was the CEO of Visually, a company he turned around and led to a successful acquisition. Before that, he was the VP of Enterprise Services at Upwork. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going t...
Apr 19, 2021•57 min•Ep. 65
064 Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in the Silicon Valley, and has closed 200+ investments since 2004. His portfolio includes Postmates, Poshmark, Fitbit, SendGrid, Mint and many others. He was also a board member of the National Venture Capital Association and was featured on the Forbes Midas List among top venture capitalists in the world. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG L...
Apr 12, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 64
063 Robin Daniels is the CMO at Matterport, a leading 3D technology company that enables professionals to edit and share 3D models of physical spaces. Prior to that he served as the CMO at WeWork and worked as a marketing executive at multiple tech companies like LinkedIn, Box, and Salesforce. He is also the founding member, advisor and investor at byFounders where he advises and invests in early stage tech companies. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceG...
Apr 05, 2021•53 min•Ep. 63
062 Craig Newmark is the founder of Craigslist. Beyond founding Craigslist he also founded Craig Newmark Foundation where he funded and promoted investment in organizations to effectively serve the communities. His philanthropy work focuses on helping build trustworthy journalism. He is a founding funder and executive committee member of the News Integrity Initiative, administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He serves on the board of directors of a range of nonprofits including Gi...
Mar 29, 2021•43 min•Ep. 62
061 Gautam Gupta is a Partner at M13 Ventures where he invests in consumer tech companies. M13’s portfolio includes Pinterest, SpaceX, Snapchat, Lyft, just to name a few. Prior to M13 Gautam was the founder and CEO of NatureBox, and an early stage investor at General Catalyst. He invested in more than 30 companies including BigCommerce, Honest Company, Grammarly and many others. He is also on the Board of Overseers at Babson College. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG ...
Mar 23, 2021•41 min•Ep. 61
060 Rebecca Minkoff is the founder of a global fashion brand named after herself, Rebecca Minkoff. The brand has retail stores in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Korea, and is distributed in over 900 stores worldwide. Beyond fashion, she hosts The Superwomen Podcast With Rebecca Minkoff with guests like Jessica Alba and many other successful women. She is the founder of The Female Founder Collective, where she helps support women in business and leadership. She also ha...
Mar 16, 2021•41 min•Ep. 60
059 Dylan Casey is the Chief Product Officer of the Engineering Division at Goldman Sachs. As a professional cyclist he competed in the Olympics and rode alongside Lance Armstrong on The USPS Pro Cycling Team. Then he pivoted his career to lead product teams at tech companies like Google, Path, Yahoo and Fair. He's also an LP at Next Ventures, and has co-founded the media company, WEDŪ Inc, with Lance Armstrong. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong Yo...
Mar 08, 2021•51 min•Ep. 59
058 Dan Kimball is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Yelp. Prior to Yelp, he was the SVP of Global Marketing at Eventbrite, where he led marketers in 8 different countries. And before that he led many marketing teams in various sectors such as real estate, banking, and healthcare. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conve...
Mar 02, 2021•50 min•Ep. 58
057 Jim McKelvey is the Co-founder of Square. Prior to founding Square he was a glassblowing artist, recovering computer scientist, Twitter and Square’s co-founder Jack Dorsey’s former boss and long time friend. Currently he is the founder of Invisibly, LaunchCode and Third Degree Glass Factory and Co-founder and General Partner at FINTOP Capital. He also serves as the Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and is on the Board of Trustees of Washington University in St. Louis. htt...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 57
056 Nicole Quinn is the General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. She invested in companies like Calm, Cameo, Lunchclub, HAUS, Zola, Girlboss and many others. Her investments are among the most competitive deals to get into, and a few of her portfolio companies are started by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Lady Gaga. Prior to venture she spent nearly a decade at Morgan Stanley, where she worked on IPOs for companies like Facebook, Groupon and Pandora. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com ...
Feb 15, 2021•33 min•Ep. 56
055 Sam Levy is the COO of Hinge, he joined Hinge when there were only 6 people. Under his leadership, Hinge has grown significantly and is one of the most popular dating apps in the US and Internationally. He led a team to rebuild the Hinge App from the ground up, and the amount of conversations users were having in the new product 9x-ed as compared to the previous app. Prior to Hinge, he was an early employee at LivingSocial where he directly worked with the CFO to build the finance team. http...
Feb 09, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 55
054 Mike Cassidy is the CEO and Co-Founder of Apollo Fusion. He previously founded and had successful exits from 4 other high tech companies, namely Ruba (acquired by Google), Xfire (acquired by MTV for $110 million), Direct Hit (acquired by Ask Jeeves for $500 million), and Stylus Innovation (acquired by Artisoft for $13 million). Before starting his current company Apollo Fusion, he served as the VP of Google responsible for Google's Project Loon, which uses high altitude balloons to bring int...
Feb 01, 2021•43 min•Ep. 54
053 David Glick is the CTO of FLEXE, a logistics technology company focused on reinventing warehousing and fulfilment to optimise the global delivery of goods for enterprise-class retailers and brands. Prior to FLEXE, he spent nearly 20 years at Amazon, including five years as the VP of Fulfillment Technology, where he oversaw the development and functionality of the technology within Amazon’s fulfillment centers and the transportation systems. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @G...
Jan 25, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 53
052 Dennis Miloseski is the co-founder of Palm, a palm sized smartphone focused on being connected, but not consumed with technology. He brought on 3-time NBA champ and MVP basketball star Stephen Curry as a strategic investor and advisor. Prior to Palm, he was the Global Vice President of Samsung Electronics and former Head of Design, Special projects at Google. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SV...
Jan 18, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 52
051 Domenic Perri is a Partner at Vertex Ventures US where he invests in early stage enterprise startups. Prior to Vertex, he worked on M&A and business development at companies like Tesla and Dropbox. When he started his career, he worked closely with Robert Herjavec, the "nice shark" from ABC’s Shark Tank. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are...
Jan 12, 2021•44 min•Ep. 51
050 Iris Choi is a Partner at Floodgate, where she sits on board of portfolio companies, makes investments and helps them build strategic corporate relationships and financings. Floodgate’s portfolio includes Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, and many others. Prior to Venture she was a VP at Goldman Sachs where she directly worked with CEOs of top companies like Disney, SanDisk and Yahoo! https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyout...
Jan 05, 2021•59 min•Ep. 50
049 Shellye Archambeau is one of Silicon Valley's first female African American CEOs. She serves as a board member at Verizon, Nordstrom, Roper Technologies and Okta. She was the former CEO of MetricStream, where she turned a struggling Silicon Valley startup to a global leading compliance software company. Prior to becoming the CEO she was an executive at IBM and CMO at two other public companies. She is the author of Unapologetically Ambitious. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB ...
Dec 24, 2020•27 min•Ep. 49
048 Shellye Archambeau is one of Silicon Valley's first female African American CEOs. She serves as a board member at Verizon, Nordstrom, Roper Technologies and Okta. She was the former CEO of MetricStream, where she turned a struggling Silicon Valley startup to a global leading compliance software company. Prior to becoming the CEO she was an executive at IBM and CMO at two other public companies. She is the author of Unapologetically Ambitious. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB ...
Dec 22, 2020•24 min•Ep. 48
047 Lucinda Newcomb is the Chief Product Officer at WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers. She leads the WW member experience across all digital channels. Prior to WW she was a VP at Walmart and Sephora, where she led product management for all of online shopping and was responsible for the entire portfolio of omni-channel digital experiences across product management and design. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyo...
Dec 16, 2020•31 min•Ep. 47
046 Lucinda Newcomb is the Chief Product Officer at WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers. She leads the WW member experience across all digital channels. Prior to WW she was a VP at Walmart and Sephora, where she led product management for all of online shopping and was responsible for the entire portfolio of omni-channel digital experiences across product management and design. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter / FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyo...
Dec 15, 2020•31 min•Ep. 46
045 Monty Moran is the former co-CEO at Chipotle Mexican Grill. He took a Denver-based burrito company to Fortune 500 status. To build a successful culture, Monty spent most of his time having one-on-one conversations with more than 20,000 employees at Chipotle. The result was a culture of empowerment where each person was rewarded (and promoted) for how effective they were in making the people around them better. Prior to joining Chipotle, Monty was the head of litigation and then managing part...
Dec 10, 2020•50 min•Ep. 45
044 Monty Moran is the former co-CEO at Chipotle Mexican Grill. He took a Denver-based burrito company to Fortune 500 status. To build a successful culture, Monty spent most of his time having one-on-one conversations with more than 20,000 employees at Chipotle. The result was a culture of empowerment where each person was rewarded (and promoted) for how effective they were in making the people around them better. Prior to joining Chipotle, Monty was the head of litigation and then managing part...
Dec 08, 2020•49 min•Ep. 44
043 Michael Hyatt built and sold 2 very successful software companies. He is an investor on the hit podcast "The Pitch" and host of the new "Business Unplanned" podcast. He sits on the Board of Advisors of Georgian Partners, one of Canada’s leading venture capital firms. He is a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award and a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter /FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/grac...
Dec 03, 2020•26 min•Ep. 43
042 Michael Hyatt built and sold 2 very successful software companies. He is an investor on the hit podcast "The Pitch" and host of the new "Business Unplanned" podcast. He sits on the Board of Advisors of Georgian Partners, one of Canada’s leading venture capital firms. He is a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award and a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/ Twitter /FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/grac...
Dec 01, 2020•27 min•Ep. 42
