It's The People: Investing Early for the Long-Term

Sean Grundy is Co-Founder and CEO of Bevi, one of the fastest growing beverage companies in the country which has raised $70M in venture capital. Prior to founding Bevi in 2013, he worked in water conservation at an environmental non-profit organization in the US and China. He has an MBA from MIT and a BA in Philosophy from Princeton University.

Fred Krupp has guided the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) for three decades. A leading voice on climate change, energy, and sustainability, he is a champion for harnessing the power of the marketplace to protect our environment. Under Krupp's leadership, EDF has become one of the world’s most influential environmental organizations. He has focused international attention on the problem of methane emissions from the oil-and-gas system and led EDF's innovative corporate partnerships with FedEx, KKR, McDonald’s, Walmart and others. Since he took the helm in 1984, EDF’s annual operating budget has grown from $3 million to over $225 million, staff has increased from 50 to more than 1,000 in 19 countries, and membership has expanded from 40,000 to over 3 million. Krupp was named one of America’s Best Leaders by the U.S. News and World Report and is a recipient of the 2015 William K. Reilly Environmental Leadership Award.

Before EDF, Krupp helped found the Connecticut Fund for the Environment (now called Save the Sound), an advocacy group for environmental protection — the first organization of its kind in the state. Krupp’s ability to create coalitions has been recognized widely. He served on President George H.W. Bush’s Commission on Environmental Quality and President Bill Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. 

He has been influential in developing several market-based solutions, including the acid rain reduction plan in the 1990 Clean Air Act.] He has been described as the environmentalist who "has been the most successful in persuading the corporate world—and those who support its interests—to embrace the green cause". Examples including convincing McDonald's to forgo styrofoam for paper, Wal-Mart to stock energy-efficient light bulbs, and Duke Energy to invest in wind power.

Sid Khattri is the founder of Vertoe, an online marketplace connecting travelers, city-dwellers and gig-economy workers with a network of on-demand short-term storage options...like cloud storage for the physical world. Sid studied mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and then worked at Google as a product manager. In this interview Sid talks about the great rise and challenging fall of Vertoe.

Charlie is a serial-entrepreneur and most recently founder of ScrumLaunch, which designs and builds scalable software products for high growth startups and enterprise brands. ScrumLaunch transforms ideas into market-leading digital platforms to drive high ROI business outcomes

Somak Chattopadhyay has been operating and investing in early-stage startups in New York State and other emerging venture regions since 1999. Before launching ASV in 2014, he was a partner at Tribeca Venture Partners (formerly Greenhill SAVP, “Tribeca”), where he was instrumental in nearly every investment of its first fund and helped launch its second fund. As a venture capitalist at Edison Ventures, Somak sourced and evaluated investments in the tech-enabled service sectors, managed deal flow referral networks and identified emerging growth companies in under-venture-invested regions across the Northeast. Somak has also held senior marketing/business development roles at Medtower, a pharmaceutical IT software company; and DealTime, a comparison shopping company that went public (NASDAQ: SHOP) and was later acquired by eBay for $620M. He has served on the boards of numerous companies, and is currently a board member of the Upstate Capital Association of New York.

“I work in VC because I am inspired by entrepreneurs and find their optimism infectious. I like engaging with them to imagine how to transform an industry, and I love helping create the next market-leading companies. I believe our firm elevates teams that are not represented in traditional tech/VC circles. I am otherwise a classical musician and enjoy travel, reading, binging on podcasts, and exploring new places and cuisines.”  — Somak Chattopadhyay

James Nelson is Principal and Head of Avison Young’s Tri-State Investment Sales group where he leads a group of three dozen professionals in the sale of multi-family, office, development and retail properties. Avison Young is a full service global real estate firm with 5,000 real estate professionals located in 120 offices in 20 countries.

Since its inception in 2018, James’ sales team has closed over 150 sales valued at well above $2.5 billion dollars, resulting in his being named one of Avison Young’s Top Sales Professionals, a Commercial Observer’s Power 100, and a CoStar Power Broker. James has also been a recipient of REBNY’s prestigious Edward S. Gordan Deal of the Year award. Some noteworthy clients include The Archdiocese of New York, Breaking Ground, The Carlyle Group, JP Morgan Chase, Salvation Army and Vornado among others.

James has built a unique sales platform at Avison Young consisting of a unified, client first, sales group that is broken out by asset class, rather than territory, and where brokers share information and commissions in order to provide the best client experience. This is very much in line with his principally-owned firm, meaning that principals are personally invested in the long-term success of their clients.

Throughout his close to 25-year career, James has been involved in the sale of approximately 500 property and loan sales for an aggregate value of over $5 billion dollars. Prior to joining Avison Young, James served as Vice Chairman of Cushman & Wakefield, where his team was ranked the number one Investment Sales broker nationwide in 2016. Previously, James was a partner and top producer for Massey Knakal for six of their last eight years and was named the company’s youngest partner in 2004.

James is passionate about real estate and helping others achieve success. Whether through his podcast or upcoming book entitled The Insider’s Edge To Real Estate Investing, videos, or blog, he advises on how to navigate and stay on top of this ever-changing market. He enjoys guest lecturing at Columbia, Fordham, NYU, Wharton, and of course his alma mater Colgate. He is a regular source for the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, and the NY Post among other.

James is on the boards of REBNY, Counselors of Real Estate, SparkYouth NYC and formerly YM/WREA. He is also a co-founder of the Real Estate Services Alliance (RESA) and the Colgate Real Estate Council. His greatest joy is spending time with his wife Allison and three sons Luke, Austin, and TJ either at home in Connecticut, up on the Cape, or traveling to their water polo tournaments on the West Coast.

Zachary Zaro is a technology entrepreneur and founder of Coherence, a startup that is the first Developer Experience Platform, offering a team-friendly toolchain that orchestrates from dev to prod using best practices. With one simple configuration, Coherence gives you automated infrastructure in your own cloud, managed CI/CD pipelines, and automated, disposable cloud-based dev environments. Coherence integrates best-in-class tools, across a complete SDLC.

Prior to founding Coherence, Zaro worked for some time as a freelance web developer, a few years as a product manager at Percolate Inc., and held a CTO position at Mavin Clinic and Quip. After 10+ years in the industry, he is now CEO and co-founder of Coherence.

Zaro holds a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Political Science from Colgate University. He is currently based in New York.

www.tiaventures.com

Dan Rosensweig is an American businessman and the CEO of Chegg, an education technology company based in Santa Clara, California. He was born on October 3, 1962, in New York City.

Rosensweig began his career in the technology industry as an executive at Ziff-Davis Publishing, where he rose to the position of President of ZDNet. He later served as Chief Operating Officer at Yahoo! from 2002 to 2006, overseeing the company's global operations.

In 2010, Rosensweig became the CEO of Chegg, an online education platform that provides textbook rentals, homework help, online tutoring, and other educational services to students. Under his leadership, Chegg has expanded its services and grown its customer base, going public in 2013 and becoming a publicly-traded company on the NYSE.

In addition to his work at Chegg, Rosensweig serves on the boards of several other technology companies, including Adobe Systems and Rent the Runway. He has also been involved in various philanthropic and social causes, serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and as a member of the board of trustees for the Harlem Children's Zone.

Jon is the founder and Chairman/CEO of RadicalMedia, one of the world's leading producers of premium content across all media platforms. Jon has over 175 film and television credits to his name, and over the course of his career has won virtually every award in the industry, including the Academy Award, the Grammy, Cannes Palm d’Or, Emmys, Lions, D&ADs, and more. At the same time he has innovated in every medium in which he has worked – film, documentaries, television, advertising, and Broadway. Jon has consistently demonstrated the ability to anticipate ‘where the puck is going’, and to create compelling content around that vision. 

Krystle is the CEO and Co-founder of BentoBox, a marketing and commerce software platform for the restaurant industry that she sold to Fiserv in 2021 in a 9-figure exit. Krystle is a first-generation Iranian with decades of experience as a designer, and both elements have played key roles in her early professional success. 

In our conversation, we discussed a range of topics including: 

• The importance of showing and not telling 
• How critical it is to have evidence that people are willing to pay upfront for what you’re building
• Key insights on how to build a great team
• The awareness and expectations that come along with raising investment capital
• Her advice on having a successful exit
• And much much more!

Robert is a serial entrepreneur and investor in the technology and oil and gas sectors.

He founded TeamSupport in 2008 and led the company to be one of the strongest players in the multi-billion dollar customer support technology market. Focusing on the B2B segment of the market, TeamSupport has customers spanning the globe and operations in both the United States and Cape Town, South Africa.

Two years after completing a private equity translation with New York City based Level Equity, Robert stepped away from the day to day operations of the company and transitioned into an oversight on the company’s board.

Prior to TeamSupport, Robert and a partner consolidated oil and gas production leases in East Texas to create a strong regional oil producer. That company was sold to a Canadian public entity and Robert served on their board for a number of years.

Directly out of Colgate University, Robert was thrust into the CEO role of a small and floundering software company called Sundance Digital. Over the next 10 years, Robert and a team he cultivated built Sundance into one of the dominant software providers to the global television market. In 2006 he led a transaction to sell the company to Avid Technology (NASDAQ:AVID).

Robert currently sits on the board of Blossom Street Ventures, a Dallas based venture capital firm and also serves as a Trustee for Colgate University.

In this episode my partner Andy Greenfield and I (Wills Hapworth) had the opportunity to interview Ram Parimi. Ram was a co-founder of a technology company in the Events space called SocialTables that was acquired by Cvent, and has since been a serial sales, revenue and go-to-market leader at numerous technology companies including Blend, Google Cloud, EventBrite and now the construction technology company Kojo. He has also been a key advisor to numerous early-stage technology companies.

This interview was a classic example of “It’s The People” as we get to do a deep dive into what makes Ram tick and what has made him successful over time. We discussed a variety of things including:

• How his experience at a young age as a vocalist in Indian Classical Music led to his love of performing and more importantly getting in front of people and making an impact, which in a way has been his life’s work.
• How to lead and manage effectively in our brave new world of remote/hybrid/in-person
• Tips on how to interview that lead to being a great assessor and recruiter of talent
• His key insight that “at the end of the day, relationships are the only thing we have”
• And much more.

In this episode my partner Andy Greenfield and I (Wills Hapworth) had the opportunity to interview Mike Tucci.

Mike is a builder and operator at his core, who has served in senior executive roles at many of the most successful retail brands on the planet, including: Coach, Gap, Macy’s, Old Navy, Rag and Bone, and Todd Snyder.

He has also been a key advisor and/or board member to companies including allbirds, The Fresh Market, and others.

Today, Mike is applying his experience as a builder/operator to advising and investing in companies through his growth investment firm, Rebel Capital, LLC

Hugh Davis is a serial entreprenuer. He helped start and grow Greenfield Online -- the world's first online market research company. Davis then went on to become the co-founder and co-CEO of Critical Mix, which is a leading provider of online survey and digital data. Crtical Mix was acquired by Dynata in 2019. Hugh is also an ironman triathlete and has demonstrated how this endurance has translated into an exceptionally successful business career. 

We had the opportunity to interview Jason Sherman,  the CEO of TapRm. From Harvard Law, to Davis Polk, to AB InBev, to starting his company, Jason shares with us his experience and insights from building a fast-growing technology company in the old school beer industry. Listen Here

We had the opportunity to interview Doug Carlson, who has advised some of the most sophisticated capital allocators in the world in his 25-year career at Cambridge Associates. Doug shares with us the importance of being obsessed with what you work on, staying the course in both bull AND bear markets, and how success can be destabilizing.

This week we had the opportunity to interview Matthew Glick, who is the CEO of Gipper, a dominant graphics creation and branding platform for sub-professional sports, making all programs & athletes look professional.

This week we had the opportunity to interview a fascinating entrepreneur, Daniel Pantelo, who is the CEO of Marpipe, which is a ​​tool that lets marketers understand which parts of their creative contribute most to performance.

Joel Mesznik is an active investor with more than 30 years of experience in investing in venture capital, private equity, and credit and distressed funds. He has been a key adviser to many successful high-growth technology companies and has also helped build, buy, and sell multiple companies in partnership with private equity funds, venture funds, and institutional debt providers. In today's episode, we discuss a range of topics including how to apply life values to succeed in business, the power that comes from always staying cool and collected regardless of the situation, and Joel's strategy around backing strong funds that create co-investment opportunities.

Bob Gold is not only a seasoned investor, but also the former CEO and president of Ridgewood capital, decades-old private equity, and venture capital fund focused on technology and energy. His experience runs from early-stage venture to late-stage private equity. He has raised billion-dollar funds and has mentored countless founders. In this episode, we discuss how difficult life events can make all work-related challenges easier to handle, the simple steps to increasing your odds of winning, and what pitching and communicating with your audience is really all about.

Ryan Barone, ex-Goldman, is innovating the mom and pop rental industry through his software 'Rentredi'. RentRedi builds property management software that empowers the next generation of landlords.

In this episode, Brandon Barton talks about his startup Bite and how he is attempting to change the restaurant industry through optimizing and personalizing online ordering for customers. 

In this episode, we interview Ryan Smith, the founder of LeafLink -- a unified B2B Cannabis Platform that connects 7,200+ retailers with 2,800+ brands and distributors for streamlined cannabis commerce. We find out if entrepreneurs are born or bred, the difficulties he's faced in building a billion-dollar business, and some of the lessons he's learned in the process. 

Marc Bernstein, who is the co-founder and CEO of Balto Software, the #1 Real-Time technology for contact centers, that has analyzed over 60 million calls and helped thousands of professionals.

Anil Narang is an entrepreneur who has built, bought, and sold several companies in partnership with private equity funds and institutional debt providers.  He currently manages his family office and has over 25 years of experience investing in venture capital, private equity, and credit/distress funds.

Our guest, Amanda Von Goetz, is the founder and CEO of Fermata, which is a data and analytics software that enables investigative agencies to solve investigations faster with better outcomes. Originally a professional pianist, Amanda transitioned to the technology industry after teaching herself to code and founding a web development agency. Amanda has also worked on the Operations side of early-stage Venture at Chasella Capital Partners, where she focused on authoring technology tools to help startups optimize their operations. Amanda completed undergraduate studies at The Juilliard School, and graduate studies at M.I.T.

Brian Horey--an experienced investor, prior venture capitalist, and current president of Aurelian management--talks about what he looks for when deciding to invest. He emphasizes that his trust in the character of portfolio managers plays a critical role in his VC investments.