Airplane, a San Francisco, CA-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) development platform, closed a $32 million Series B funding round led by Thrive Capital with participation from Benchmark, bringing the startup’s total raised to $40.5 million. I interviewed Ravi Parikh, Co-Founder at Airplane. He is also the former co-founder of Heap. Ravi is on a mission to automate the harder part of admin tools in applications. This is the behind-the-scenes code necessary to run your applications. Airplane has ...
Apr 13, 2023•26 min
Aug X Labs, a New York-based AI video technology startup, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to use AI to democratize video creation by content creators. I interviewed Jeremy Toeman, Founder and CEO, who has a long history of building consumer apps. He built an AI-assisted visual storytelling service that saves time and money for creators. The company is building an AI-based visual storytelling platform that automatically transforms text or audio prompts into compelling, purpose-driven videos...
Apr 07, 2023•25 min
Orderlion, a Vienna, Austria-based SaaS platform for the food and beverage industry, raised €4 million in pre-Series A funding, bringing its total raised to about €7.5 million since its 2018 inception. I interviewed Stefan Strohmer, CEO and Co-founder. The technology has not changed in fifty years to help restaurants manage the supply chain back to suppliers. Stefan founded the company in 2018 and it took two years to build the MVP. Orderlion is now re-planning to step up expansion plans, making...
Mar 30, 2023•26 min
From a basement project in 2015 to $33M raised to date, Unito is integrating disparate SaaS applications and improving workflows. I interviewed Mark Boscher, founder and CEO at Unito. Mark’s team uses a product-led growth (PLG) motion to acquire users. He’s at 50,000+ users and climbing. Unito, a Montreal, Canada-based workflow management software, completed $20 million in Series B funding. CDPQ led the round, with participation from new investors Rainfall Ventures and Investissement Québec, as ...
Mar 22, 2023•23 min
This is a special edition of the podcast covering the US R&D tax credit. I invited Tyler Kem, President of Strike Tax Advisory, to discuss the latest on this tax credit. There were big changes to section 174 of the tax law affecting small businesses that claimed this credit in the past. No repeal of these changes is in sight, so we must understand where we stand today. To understand your tax situation, reach out to your CPA, tax accountant, and/or R&D tax specialist. Tyler Kem's LinkedIn...
Mar 21, 2023•11 min
I interviewed Philippe Humeau, CEO and co-founder at CrowdSec. He is creating the Waze for cybersecurity. If one firewall is having issues, the product can see the machines having the same issues and then block the IP. The product is free, but CrowdSec will monetize the product by selling the signals to end users. CrowdSec, a Paris, France-based Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) solution, announced raised €14 million in Series A funding round led by Supernova Invest, with participation from Breega...
Mar 10, 2023•20 min
I interviewed Kathy Zhu, co-founder and CEO at Streamline AI. Kathy has 10+ years of experience as a commercial lawyer and has built legal teams from the ground up. She was bitten by the startup bug and turned her own pain point into a SaaS solution. Streamline AI, a San Francisco, CA-based intelligent intake platform for in-house legal teams, officially launched with $3 million in seed funding to supercharge how business teams work, starting with legal. The round was led by Oceans Ventures, wit...
Mar 01, 2023•25 min
I spoke with Dave Saunders, CTO of Galen Robotics. His company is creating the “Uber” of surgical robots. Galen Robotics will place robots at hospitals and charge per use. This helps increase access to the latest surgical robots. It’s a fascinating hardware and software play, but Dave states that 80-90% of the technology in surgical robots is software. Galen Robotics, a Baltimore, Maryland-based Digital-Surgery-as-a-Service pioneer, completed a $15 million 1st close for an oversubscribed Series ...
Feb 24, 2023•18 min
I spoke with Christian Ritosek, co-founder and CEO of CANDIS. He’s helping finance departments in German companies improve their AP technology. He should pass $10M ARR this year as CANDIS expands into Europe. CANDIS, a Berlin, Germany-based fintech software provider, raised $16 million in its latest funding round to assist businesses in automating their accounts payable (AP) function, bringing CANDIS's total funding to $30 million. The round was led by Viola FinTech and returning investor Lights...
Feb 20, 2023•18 min
I interviewed David Weissman, CEO and co-founder of Humankind. He’s no rookie to e-commerce having spent 20+ years in the space. He’s worked for some of the biggest retail brands and has transformed that experience into a better online shopping experience for you. Humankind, a Los Angeles, CA-based e-commerce brand's digital concierge, and conversational commerce platform, closed $4.2 million in seed funding to connect real product experts with online shoppers via SMS. High Alpha Capital and Str...
Feb 10, 2023•27 min
I spoke with Mingsheng Hong, co-founder and CEO of Bluesky. Bluesky, a Menlo Park, CA-based formally launched its first product that provides unprecedented visibility into Snowflake workload usage and costs. He couldn’t start coding his idea due to IP concerns when he was employed. However, soon after launching the idea, he raised funding and started to code the product. Bluesky announced that it raised $8.8 million in seed funding led by Greylock, with participation from angels Ashish Thusoo (c...
Feb 02, 2023•24 min
I interviewed Ben Edmond, founder and CEO at Connectbase. Ben started his career in sales and product management in the telecom arena. He made the leap from employee to SaaS founder in 2015. His company is connecting buyers and sellers of fiber and connectivity across the globe. Connectbase, a Westborough, MA-based connectivity marketplace platform, announced that it raised $21 million in its Series C funding round led by DigitalBridge Ventures, the InfraTech initiative of DigitalBridge Group, I...
Jan 27, 2023•15 min
I spoke with Hauke Feddersen, VP of Operations at PreciTaste. PreciTaste is a fascinating combination of AI and vision hardware. It optimizes food production at quick service restaurants. PreciTaste, a New York-based Vision AI platform in operational optimization, raised $24 million in Series A to continue its mission to become the standard for digital food AI management in fast casual and QSR kitchens. HQ’s in New York and Munich Just passed 100 FTE’s Doubling growth $24M raised Huge total addr...
Jan 16, 2023•24 min
I interviewed Thomas Ramsøy, CEO and founder of Neurons. Thomas holds a Ph.D. in Neuropsychology and was a clinical psychologist. He and his company have worked with some of the largest consumer brands in the world to understand how consumers respond to ads. He is helping these brands stop the waste in their marketing budget. Founded in 2013 Started as a consulting agency ~100 staff Based in Copenhagen Goal to hit 5M ARR in 2023 7M total raised + venture debt Neurons, a Danish consumer neuroscie...
Jan 06, 2023•29 min
Oort, a Boston, MA-based identity-centric enterprise security platform, raised $15 million in the funding of Seed and Series A rounds. I interviewed Matt Caulfield, Founder and CEO at Oort. Matt put his time in as a cloud/systems engineer. While working at a Fortune 100 company, he saw a market opportunity in security and ditched his employee title for SaaS founder. Oort will use the funds to grow and further accelerate its go-to-market (GTM) strategy and leadership in identity threat detection ...
Dec 29, 2022•24 min
Devicie, a Sydney, Australia-based software startup that helps companies secure their workers’ laptops, announced that it raised $14 million AUD in Series A funding. The round was led by New York-based private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with participation from leading Australian cybersecurity firm CyberCX. Devicie previously raised $1.3 million in seed capital from angel investors and the cybersecurity venture accelerator program CyRise. I interviewed Martin McGregor, CEO ...
Dec 22, 2022•29 min
I interviewed Tom Ross, CEO of Andgo Systems. This is not your regular shift scheduling software. Andgo is innovating on intelligent shift fill automation in complex industries such as healthcare and manufacturing. No more waiting for sick calls and then manually calling employees to fill open shifts. Not surprisingly the pandemic drove growth. The pandemic crushed the status quo and demanded the need for real-time analytics of labor staffing. Tom discloses his ARR range in this episode and plan...
Dec 15, 2022•32 min
HPC-AI Tech, a Beijing, China-based artificial intelligence high-performance optimization platform, closed $6 million in seed and angel rounds. The angel round was led by BlueRun Ventures China (BRV China); the funds will be mainly used to bring in more talented teams and expand the business market. I interviewed Yang You, founder of HPC-AI Technology. He also holds a PhD and is a professor at the National University of Singapore. The number of parameters in AI modeling has increased 35x. Yang a...
Dec 07, 2022•13 min
Mesh Payments, a New York-based corporate payment and spend management platform, raised $50 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Entrée Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, and existing investors TLV Partners and Meron Capital. I interviewed Oded Zehavi, CEO and co-founder at Mesh Payments. He is a self-described “payments geek.” Mesh pivoted product strategy during the pandemic. $123M raised, series B of $50M 150 staff, 100 engineers NYC headquarters ...
Dec 02, 2022•33 min
Duel, a London, UK-based leading brand advocacy platform used by companies including ASOS, Dove, and Charlotte Tilbury, secured a $3 million (£2.5m) seed funding round led by SuperSeed. The investment will enable Duel to continue its 13 percent monthly growth rate in 2022 and better serve its expanding global client base. I spoke with Paul Archer, CEO and Founder of Duel. Paul’s tech experience dates back to when he wrote first video game at age 12. He founded Duel to turn word-of-mouth brand re...
Nov 29, 2022•31 min
Lionize, a New York-based SaaS leader in the influencer marketing industry announced that it secured a $3 million seed investment. The round was led by St. Louis-based Cultivation Capital, with participation by ScOp Venture Capital, a Santa Barbara-based firm managed by DoubleClick founder Kevin O’Connor. I spoke with Chris Buetti, co-founder and CEO of Lionize. He is a data scientist turned SaaS founder. The initial concept of Lionize started as an interview project. Chris learned the hard way ...
Nov 17, 2022•20 min
You may know David Spitz as the creator of the acclaimed Pacific Crest / Key Banc SaaS metrics survey. He was a successful investment banker for over 30 years and then pulled the rip cord to found his own SaaS company. David realized that traditional benchmarking is painful, using manual processes and ill-suited survey tools. He founded Benchsights in 2021 to solve this pain. With BenchSights, he built a software and data platform that focuses on software sales and compensation benchmarks. David...
Nov 09, 2022•27 min
Headroom, a San Francisco, CA-based meeting platform leveraging artificial intelligence to improve communications and productivity, has announced that it raised $9 million in funding. The capital brings total funding to date to $14 million and will be used to expand Headroom’s team, product development, and mobile offering. I interviewed Julian Green, CEO and co-founder, using Headroom’s application. Julian has been involved in tech and startups since 1998. Headroom is solving the problem of eff...
Nov 02, 2022•24 min
Mindset AI, a London, UK-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm that helps businesses within the knowledge economy to digitize their services and scale their expertise, raised £1.65 million from Mercia and angel investors. The funding will enable Mindset.AI to expand its team with several key appointments, boost its sales and marketing activity, and further enhance the platform. I had a great conversation with Barrie Hadfield, CEO and co-founder of Mindset AI. Founded in 2020 Staff of 50, fully...
Oct 25, 2022•19 min
