The Bottom Line
By Harvard Ventures
The Bottom LineJun 15, 2020
S4: E1 Arhan Chhabra: Harvard Student and Co-Founder at Rove
In this opening episode of "The Bottom Line" Season 4, Caleb Kline chats with Arhan Chhabra, a Harvard sophomore and the mind behind Rove, the pioneering travel credit card for Gen Z. They delve into Rove's origin, the hurdles and highlights of student entrepreneurship, and the gratification that comes from creating a product with passion. Arhan offers a multitude of insights from his entrepreneurial journey, providing helpful guidance to fellow student founders. Join us to discover how Rove is unlocking the world of travel for a new generation.
S3: E6 Michelle You: Co-Founder and CEO at Supercritical
In this thought-provoking episode, we welcome the Co-Founder and CEO of Supercritical and Co-Founder of SongKick, Michelle You, to the Bottom Line. Michelle shares her captivating journey of transitioning into the tech world and her profound career transformation and environmental advocacy. In today’s episode, we dive into the intricacies of Michelle’s career exploration, the importance of embracing change, and the invaluable lessons learned along the way.
Delving deeper, Michelle shines a spotlight on the pressing issue of climate change mitigation, shedding light on the concept of carbon removal and the urgent need for achieving net-zero emissions. Michelle also speaks to her company’s pivotal role in this critical space and offers key insights into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
From sharing advice to college students embarking on their career journeys to discussing the qualities she values in a team, this episode is brimming with wisdom, inspiration, and actionable takeaways. Tune in as we engage with Michelle You in a riveting conversation that transcends industries, ignites passion, and empowers listeners to drive positive change in their own lives and beyond!
S3: E5 Sharon Marcil: Senior Partner and Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group
In today's episode, we're honored to introduce Sharon Marcil, a powerhouse figure in the business world. As the Senior Partner and Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group, Sharon's impact spans across the global operating and executive committee, leading BCG's North America region with unparalleled expertise.
With a stellar academic background, she earned her BA in economics and government from Duke University, graduating magna cum laude, followed by an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. Sharon's journey traverses beyond academia, encompassing her pivotal role working on Wall Street, notably in M&A at Goldman Sachs. Her rich experiences and insights culminate in a transformative transition into the realm of consulting, where she has dedicated over three decades of her illustrious career to one of the world's foremost consulting firms.
Join us as Sharon shares her captivating narrative, from her formative years in education to, ultimately, her enduring legacy within the consulting sphere. This is an episode not to be missed, offering a firsthand glimpse into the multifaceted journey of a true industry luminary.
S3: E4 Chris Voss: Former international hostage negotiator for the FBI gives his approach to negotiating in the boardroom
Not only is he a former FBI hostage negotiator, but Chris Voss is also a founder, businessman, former CEO of The Black Swan Group, Ltd, and author of “Never Split the Difference Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It.” Previously representing the U.S. government as an expert in kidnapping at conferences sponsored by the G8 and MasterClass instructor on negotiations, Voss is highly knowledgeable in high-stakes negotiations and international crises. He has taught business negotiation at Harvard University and in numerous MBA programs. Today, Voss shares his transition from his involvement in the FBI to the private world of business and venture capital.
S3: E3 Kyle Waldrep on The Founder’s Journey To Making Commercial Real Estate Tech Smart
Kyle Waldrep is founder and CEO of real estate prop-tech firm Dottid. The commercial real estate SAAS technology platform aims to replace antiquated processes in the leasing industry and has raised over $20M in the process. Join us as Kyle steps us through founding Dottid and navigating the founder's life.
S3: E2 Justin Fishner-Wolfson on Stanford, SpaceX, and Investing in this Market Cycle
Join us for a conversation with Justin Fishner-Wolfson on the current market cycle and how to invest in durable companies. Listen in as Justin talks about his time at Founders Fund and what he sees as the future of SpaceX.
S3: E1 "PayPal Mafia:" David Sacks on the Transition from Founding Companies to Investing in Them
Join us for a conversation with historic PayPal founder David Sacks on his journey and the transition to venture capital with Craft Ventures
S2: E13 Chris Romer on the Future of ESG
Join us for a conversation with Chris Romer, Co-Founder and CEO of Project Canary, on balancing public and private sector endeavors, learning to fail, and the future of emissions reduction. Get ready to dive into the hot topic of ESG measurement!
S2: E12 Trinny London on Building a Multi-Million Dollar Beauty Brand
Trinny Woodall is founder and CEO of digital-first global beauty brand, Trinny London. In just over three years, Trinny London has witnessed phenomenal growth, with revenue soaring to £37.7M ($52M) in the last 12 months and a team that’s grown to over 130 people. Join Harvard Ventures as Trinny talks raising venture capital as a female founder, discovering a new need for feel-good beauty products among women, and the importance of values-driven marketing and authenticity.
S2: E11 Deep Nishar on Running U.S. SoftBank Vision Fund
Enjoy a conversation with esteemed venture capitalist Deep Nishar, whose time with Softbank, LinkedIn, and Google speaks for itself, not to mention his founding of Patkai Networks. Listen in as Deep teaches us about mentorship, venture capital, and leadership. (And the best pizza toppings!)
S2: E10 Daniel Moore: CEO of Rockefeller Group
Join us for a conversation with Daniel Moore, President and CEO of the Rockefeller Group, on his unique leadership style, entering the real estate market, and how the pandemic will change the industry. Get ready to dive into the ever evolving world of real estate!
S2: E9 Amber Venz Box on Establishing LTK and Dominating Influencer Marketing
Join us for our conversation with Amber Venz Box, tech entrepreneur and founder of RewardStyle and LikeToKnow.it (now LTK), on building a billion dollar business, navigating the pressures of being a young founder, and recruiting talent for rapid growth. Learn how she grew her startup to $2B in annual sales with a network of more than 1 million brands and thousands of influencers.
S2:E8 Robert Langer on Founding Moderna
Listen to our conversation with Dr. Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, on the race to produce the Moderna vaccine, how he evaluates startup ideas at his lab, and what it really takes to produce a high quality patent.
S2: E7 Sam Bankman-Fried on FTX and the Future of Crypto
Join us for a conversation with Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder and CEO of Alameda Research and FTX Exchange. Alameda Research, a quantitative crypto trading firm, manages $2.5B in assets and FTX Exchange offers derivatives, options, volatility products, and leveraged tokens. FTX recently secured partnerships with Tom Brady, MLB, and naming rights to the home stadium of the Miami Heat. Follow along as we discuss the path to FTX's sky-rocketing success, and find out what the King of Crypto has to say about the rise and future of crypto and blockchain technology in general.
S2: E6 Vivek Ramaswamy on Entrepreneurship in College, founding Roivant Sciences and Innovation in Biotech
Listen to our conversation with the executive chairman and founder of Roivant Sciences. Learn how Mr. Ramaswamy used his experience in Biotech investing to found a 7 billion dollar company, and what his insights are regarding building a start-up and how Covid-19 has impacted the industry.
S2: E5 Robert Kaplan on The Federal Reserve, Social Impact Entrepreneurship, and Venture Philanthropy
Listen to our conversation with President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and co-chair of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Robert Kaplan. Follow along as we discuss his role in managing the economy, high impact and social investing, and our national outlook post-COVID.
S2: E4 Allen Shim on Slack's $27B+ Acquisition
Listen to our conversation with the CFO of Slack, Allen Shim. Learn how Mr. Shim scaled Slack into a company with nearly $1 billion in annual revenue, and what his insights are about the Slack's growth and the future of remote work.
S2: E3 Rob Kapito on Founding BlackRock and the Future of Investing
Listen to our conversation with President and Co-Founder of BlackRock, Rob Kapito. Learn how Mr. Kapito founded BlackRock, how he built the largest asset manager in the world, and how he approaches the future of ETFs and ESG investing. In December of 2020, BlackRock set a record with $8.7 trillion in assets under management.
S2: E2 Alex Kayyal on Salesforce Ventures and Enterprise Entrepreneurs
Listen to our conversation with Alex Kayyal, Partner and Head of Salesforce Ventures International, on the day in the life of a VC investor, Salesforce Ventures investments, and how Salesforce Ventures has committed $100M to black-owned businesses and minority founders.
S2: E1 Frank Slootman on Snowflake’s $100B+ Valuation
Listen to our conversation with the CEO and Chairman of Snowflake on leading the firm through the biggest software IPO in history, evaluating the potential of early-stage ventures, and dominating the American Dream.
E21: Andy Beck on AI in Medicine
Listen to our conversation with Andy Beck, founder and CEO of PathAI, a company that develops artificial intelligence technology for pathology. Andy earned his MD from Brown Medical School and completed residency and fellowship training in Anatomic Pathology and Molecular Genetic Pathology from Stanford University. He completed a PhD in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford University, where he developed one of the first machine-learning based systems for cancer pathology. He's been certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology and Molecular Genetic Pathology. Prior to co-founding PathAI, he was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School in the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He has published over 110 papers in the fields of cancer biology, cancer pathology, and biomedical informatics.
E20: Gail McGovern on the American Red Cross, Resilience, and Innovation
Listen to our conversation with Gail McGovern, President and CEO of the American Red Cross. Learn about her experience combatting some of the most destructive natural disasters in the world in addition to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Hear her take on American resilience and gain insights on her financial turnaround of the one of the oldest and most prominent nonprofit organizations of the United States (est. 1881).
E19: Greg Mankiw on Advising Economic Policy for President George W. Bush, Venture Capital Funds, and Free Markets
Listen to our conversation with Professor Greg Mankiw, the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for President George W. Bush. We discussed his time at the White House producing the Economic Report of the President, venture capital, his investment portfolio, and the economy as a result of COVID-19.
E18: Sarah Kunst on Cleo Capital and VC Investing
Listen to our conversation with Sarah Kunst, founder and partner at Cleo Capital. Ms. Kunst has been named as a top woman in venture capital by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes 30 under 30, a top African American in tech by Business Insider, and is a contributing editor at Marie Claire.
E17: Danny Meyer on Michelin Stars, Shake Shack, and Restaurant Development
Listen to our interview with one of the most influential restaurateurs in the world, Mr. Danny Meyer. Mr. Meyer has created and developed more than 20 high end restaurants in New York City in addition to founding Shake Shack. One of his original restaurants, Eleven Madison Park, was named as the best restaurant in the world in 2017. Hear his advice to students on scaling ventures and insights on the restaurant industry.
E16: Stacey Bendet on Alice + Olivia and Fashion Entrepreneurship
Listen to our conversation with Stacey Bendet, founder of the highly influential American fashion brand, Alice + Olivia. Learn how Bendet scaled her business right out of college, her creative process, and advice to students. Bendet is known for dressing celebrities such as Michelle Obama, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gigi Hadid, and many others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched a new venture to help creatives showcase their work and find jobs on her platform called Creatively.
E15: Flynn Coleman on Ethical Leadership and AI
E14: Alexa von Tobel on Being a "Recession Entrepreneur”
Listen to our conversation with Alexa von Tobel, Managing Partner and founder of Inspired Capital, founder and former CEO of LearnVest (acquired by Northwestern Mutual), and the New York Times- Bestselling Author of Financially Fearless. Alexa went to Harvard College and Harvard Business School.
To Be Or Not To Be Enrolled
Listen to our conversation all about college’s reopening plans... this time with 4 guests!
In light of school's reopening plans, though the approach between institutions is varied, the reaction of students and parents is quite similar: What should I do? Pay thousands of dollars for an online education? Take a year off from College and return to my secure spot in one year? Start a business?
To answer these questions and more we are joined by Curren Iyer (Harvard Class of 2017) currently @LinkedIn and former President of Harvard Ventures, Erik Schluntz (Harvard Class of 2015) founder @Cobalt Robotics and formerly @SpaceX, Ben Pleat (Harvard Class of 2017) founder at Cobu and also former President of Harvard Ventures with Curren, and Matt Sutton venture investor in Cambridge who helps teach a class on entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School.
Resources on gap years and startups: https://tinyurl.com/gap-year-2020
*Curated by our guests on this episode
E13: Shelly Xu + Court Williams on Sustainable Fashion and Personal Brand
Listen to our first double guest conversation with Shelly Xu, an ex-Prada and ex-Instagram employee now incubating her startup Shelly Xu Design (the first zero waste fashion startup) at Harvard University’s i-lab, and Court Williams, creative director and consultant specializing in luxury working as a Director at Instagram’s Creative Shop
E12: Mercedes Bent on Transitioning from Wall Street to Startupland
This interview is part of Harvard Ventures Black Lives Matter fundraising and education efforts. All the proceeds from the sponsored segments of this podcast episode will be donated to organizations aiming to create equal opportunities for the advancement of Black entrepreneurs and investors in startupland.
We at Harvard Ventures stand in firm solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement, and we recognize as a community of builders with tremendous privilege to be studying at Harvard we have a responsibility to use all our platforms to demand justice for all victims of racially motivated violence and be active leaders in shaping the changes we want to see in startupland, in America, and in our world.
Next week, we will be launching our AMPLIFY series in collaboration with the Yale Entrepreneurial Society. Together, we have mobilized 10 universities across the country to host weekly virtual speaker events featuring the experiences, creations, triumphs, hardships, and learnings of Black entrepreneurs, executives, and investors.
AMPLIFY mission statement: tinyurl.com/amplifymission
Join the AMPLIFY mailing list to stay updated on our events: tinyurl.com/amplifymail (open for everyone to join!)
This is the first of many ongoing initiatives Harvard Ventures is committed to working towards to uplift underrepresented groups in startup land. So special thank you again to Mercedes for joining us and to all of you for listening, donating, and sharing.
Additional resources for BLM donations: tinyurl.com/HVBLMDonations
E11: Ben Wei on The COVID Foundation and How YOU Can Help
The COVID Foundation is on a mission to provide essential medical supplies to those who need it most. The organization achieves this by analyzing data to identify the most urgent need, with an emphasis on marginalized communities in the areas hit hardest by COVID-19.
**Visit www.covid.cm/opportunities for volunteer opportunities and more ways to support Ben and The COVID Foundation’s work.
E10: David Rubenstein on The Carlyle Group, Raising Capital, and The American Dream
E9: John C. Warner on Green Chemistry in Business, Politics, and Innovation
Listen to our conversation with John Warner, inventor, entrepreneur, and pioneer in green chemistry, and founder of Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to green chemistry education for scientists, educators, and citizens alike.
E8: Wendy Kopp on Teach for America, Non-Profit Fundraising, and Virtual Classrooms
E7: Chip Wilson on Lululemon, Solo Founders, and Goal Setting
E6: Gary Cohn on Goldman Sachs, The White House, and Venture Capital
E5: Robert Langer on Biotech Innovation and its Role Combating COVID-19
E4: Strauss Zelnick on eSports, Private Equity, and Leading a Meaningful Life
E3: Andy Gonzalez on Unicorn Startup Ginkgo Bioworks
Listen to our conversation with Andy Gonzalez on his journey from Harvard to Bain to Ginkgo Bioworks as he offers advice to college students on how to pursue your passions and join a startup.
E2: Anne Dwane on How to Break into VC
E1: Mark Cuban on COVID-19, AI, Personalized Medicine, and More
Listen to our conversation with Mark Cuban as he offers valuable insights into his world as an investor and gives advice on how businesses can survive the COVID-19 pandemic.