On this episode, Hall welcomes Jeff Canin of E8 Angels and Element 8 Venture Fund. Element 8 Ventures is focused on entrepreneurial ideation, experimentation, research and education. They are investing in entrepreneurs that are tackling grand challenges, pushing the boundaries of innovation, and disrupting age-old practices, whilst creating new industries to drive socio-economic development.

After joining a large California-based VC firm, Jeff ended up in Bellevue, Washington working as a startup advisor. He then joined as a board member of E8 Angels, focusing on clean tech startups. Jeff gives advice for those looking to invest in the clean tech space and explains where he sees that industry evolving. He also discusses some of the challenges in the space, as well as highlights a few of the subsectors he feels are particularly promising.

Today, we’ll talk about should you raise funding and if so, how much should you seek.

- Funding accelerates what you already have going in your business today. You should have a core process for acquiring customers and providing a service. If you don't have it then funding at this stage will only hurt your business. It's best to continue testing your core business model till you know it works. It's important to find the best channel for acquiring customers and at the most efficient cost. By stating your core business in numbers, you now know what it costs to grow your business.

- What is the best source of funding for your business?
In addition to equity funding, you may consider debt financing, self-funding, or bootstrapping. Debt financing requires you to pay back the loan but after you do so, you own the business outright. You could self-finance, which means you put in your own money, or you could bootstrap it, which is another way of saying ‘find a customer who will pay for your product/service’. I call this customer funding. For this you may need to offer additional services at a higher price to cover the startup costs but is a great way to grow your business as it keeps you focused on your product and customer.

So, if you decide to raise equity funding, how much should you raise?

- Raise enough so that it will take your business to the next level. Think about the position you need to achieve in order to raise the next round of funding. Your fundraise should take you there and set you up for the next raise. Your valuation in any startup is low at the beginning. Raising too much money at a low valuation will end up giving away too much equity. For those with larger fund raises you may want to break it down into several milestone steps in which case you can raise your valuation for each step as you achieve more revenue.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Espresso.

Let’s go startup something today!

On this episode, Hall welcomes Ben Faubion of Reactive Canvas, and Austin-based digital design firm specializing in startups. He talks about how design has evolved over the years into a more strategic, problem-solving service. He explains how design is often becoming more and more integrated into a startup's vision, and a focus throughout the various stages of product delivery.
Ben relates that, while the impact of good design itself is difficult to put into hard metrics, design can be 'guidance and insight'. As Ben puts it, "If [startups are] seeing questions being answered, if they're seeing problems being solved, then that's where they can say, 'Hey, design is making an impact on our company'." Ben goes on to talk about companies large and small, and how good design impacts their branding and growth.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Jonathan Olsen of Unorthodox Ventures. Unorthodox Ventures partners with founders who demonstrate disruption and discipline. Dreamers who do something. Tinkerers who create solutions to real-world problems. Jonathan has focused his career on tackling problems that are too quirky to fit into an existing mold. As an investor Jonathan has now been set free to help develop disruptive companies.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Gabriel Jarrosson, founder of Leonis Investment. Gabriel was an entrepreneur at an early age, creating his first company while in engineering school. He then created his second company, Le Vin de France, a community marketplace for French winemakers, after leaving school. When he began investing, Gabriel quickly realized the benefits of working with syndicates and started one of the first in France.

Gabriel talks about some of the advantages of joining syndicates, such as deal flow and the ability to make smaller investments. He explains how syndicates work, some of the challenges they present, as well as some of the pitfalls of over-diversification. Gabriel invests exclusively in software, so you'll also hear about some of the software sectors he feels are the most promising.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Kevin Van Eekeren, Founder and CEO of Fulcrum Investing. Fulcrum Investing is a private investment group focused on making seed to Series B investments in startups across the United States. Kevin is not only an investor but also an entrepreneur and a farmer.

Before Fulcrum, Kevin worked as a civilian logistics officer in a SWAT team. Through his experience there, he started a charity-turned-for profit company Fulcrum Tactical. Kevin also started Fulcrum Farms, a Chicago-area sustainable farm. He provides his unique viewpoint on early-stage investing. Kevin relates his agnostic philosophy of investing, with a focus on companies with great teams and solid business platforms, rather than ones that fit with his interests and biases.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Kevin Koym Founder & CEO of Tech Ranch. Austin based Tech Ranch provides accelerators for pre-seed and seed-stage technology companies of Central Texas entrepreneurs. Kevin has developed a combination of training and web-based systems designed to create a local culture of success and entrepreneurship. 

Kevin’s mission is to help solve world problems through entrepreneurship. He wanted to help entrepreneurs that are solving these problems and develop their business to then connect them to the opportunity to help them scale. He’s now worked with more than 65 to a hundred entrepreneurs, from 42 countries, and across the US.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Phil Nadel Founder and Managing Director of Forefront Venture Partners. Phil is an angel investor, author, and frequent speaker at industry conferences and events. Before early-stage investing, Phil was a serial entrepreneur. He started and sold several companies which led to friends and family looking for advice. He then began to invest in those as well as advising. He has now invested in more than 100 startups with several exits.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Emlyn Scott, Managing Partner of CP Ventures. Emlyn has over 25 years of financial and business development experience in Australia and Europe. He has made 15 early-stage investments personally since 2012. CP Ventures has built high growth businesses and has invested in over 100 startups. They look to invest in the world’s best companies in their domain and then help primarily via tech advice, human resources, and networks.

Emlyn provides his advice to startup investors, emphasizing a working knowledge of the sector, partnering with knowledgeable investors, and diversification. Also, Emlyn talks about the state of the startup investing space in Australia, some of the startups he's worked with, and some of the challenges startups need to consider.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Namek Zu'bi Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Silicon Badia. Before investing in early-stage companies, Namek has always been fascinated with technology. He moved to the US to pursue a degree in computer science at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh PA and fell into the general tech landscape. He eventually went into financial services and wanted to work with big banks to see how they use tech to solve their big problems including trading technologies. Namek worked at Deutsche Bank on enterprise B2B applications. In 2009, he was introduced to the Co-founder of Clove Hitch Partners and helped launch. Since then, Namek has personally led investments in over 70 different technology companies globally in over 15 different industries across all stages. He has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and has been involved in every step of the life cycle of a startup from launch to exit.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Cole Harmonson, the President and co-founder of Far West Capital. Before Far West Capital, Cole was the founder and senior vice president of State Bank’s Working Capital Finance Group (WCFG), the asset-based lending and factoring division of State Bank. In 1996, Cole joined State Bank to start the WCFG, where he managed the business until the sale to Prosperity Bank in February 2007. Before joining State Bank, he was a vice president at The National Bank of Texas in Fort Worth.

On this episode, you’ll learn about Far West’s unique approach. Far West Capital delivers far more than working capital to growing entrepreneurs. Their people and their processes are uniquely built to craft tailored financial and business solutions. Expertly serving a variety of industries nationwide, they provide financing for needs from $50,000 to $10,000,000 by purchasing or lending on accounts receivable, inventory or purchase orders.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Gina Luna of Luna Strategies. GIna is a recognized leader with invaluable business insight. She is a trusted advisor to CEOs and business owners. As CEO of Luna Strategies, Gina counsels companies and their leaders on complex strategic issues and growth initiatives. She has established a reputation for partnering with owners, boards, and management from a broad spectrum of industries to deliver solutions and drive results.

In this episode, you’ll learn more about Gina’s background before joining the HX Venture Fund. She spent over 22 years with JP Morgan in various roles before becoming a founding chairperson of the HX Venture Fund. Started in Houston, this fund focuses on building the innovation ecosystem. The goal was to bring more early-stage capital to invest in Houston companies. Gina also shares her advice to those who are just now starting to invest in early-stage startups. According to Gina, you should find great management teams and great entrepreneurs in the very earliest stage. She also advises to spread your investments and diversify your risk. As you gain experience and those companies continue to mature, then you can invest more as they develop.

One this episode, Hall is joined again by Jake Ryan, founder and manager of Tradecraft Capital. Jake brings over 20 years of professional experience in software technology to the world of crypto-asset investing.

Following up on their earlier discussion, Jake talks about the state of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market. In addition, Jake explains how the blockchain space as a whole is still in the building phase. However, he feels that a tipping point may be coming where investors and startups should start to get leverage from the networks they've been building. Hall and Jake also discuss other related topics, ranging from decentralized finance, web 3.0, automation, AI, and more.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Leslie Goldman of the Artemis Fund. The Artemis Fund is the first female-founded, female-focused venture fund in Houston, Texas. The Artemis Fund will be investing $20M in 15-20 female-led US-based companies that disrupt the Consumer Tech, Life Tech, Fin-Tech, and Energy Infrastructure industries.

In this episode, you’ll learn Leslie's background before early-stage and angel investing. Leslie's experience as an angel investor in over 40 companies and as an LP in five other VC funds led her to establish her fund with her two partners. Together, they bring a cross-generational perspective, diverse backgrounds and a huge network for deal sourcing and vetting companies.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Chris Hall of Escalate Capital. Escalate Capital is an Austin, TX-based Mezzanine Private Equity Firm, primarily focusing on high-growth late-stage technology companies, including SaaS, tech-enabled services, internet, and healthcare. Before investing in early-stage companies, Chris had his eye on mergers and acquisitions but at the time it was not feasible due to the state of the banking industry. He then began his career as a management consultant in many different fields including technology, healthcare, oil and gas, and energy. Interested in a more operational focus, Chris worked in private equity before transitioning full-time to investing.

In this episode, you'll hear Chris's take on the current state of the growth equity space, and where he sees it heading. Also, Chris discusses some of the successes and challenges he's experienced in the space, as well as some of the subsectors and applications he thinks, are particularly promising.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Fran Maier of BabyQuip. BabyQuip is a sharing economy business that helps families pack light and travel happy to hundreds of destinations in the US and Canada. Powered by a trusted community of trained, insured and amazing independent Quality Providers, BabyQuip delivers and sets up clean, quality baby gear at a family’s hotel, vacation rental or private residence. Fran has been involved with internet startups since 1994, with BabyQuip being her fifth foray. You'll hear about how she got into the sharing economy space, what excites her about it, and where she sees the space evolving.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Constantine Potamianos co-founder and CEO of Black Bull Advisors. Black Bull Advisors is a hedge fund that utilizes a proprietary, artificial intelligence technology, to direct and manage technical trading within the crypto space; they are a primarily crypto-focused fund.

Before Black Bull Advisors, Constantine began his career in engineering at Caltech and also has undergraduate degrees in Computer Science, Government, and Economics. He then went on to get his MBA and a Law degree from Georgetown. His background has been tremendously helpful in bringing a multidisciplinary perspective to business problems, management and investing.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Karyn Scott of Care2Rock. Care2Rock is a company that is absolutely committed and passionate about helping transform lives through music. This philosophy is rooted in everything they do, especially the teachers they select through a triple-vetting process to teach on the platform. Karyn launched Care2Rock in May of last year. After a year and a half of technology development, they've arrived at the best audio/video conferencing solution for music lessons.

Karyn previously started the nonprofit Kids In A New Groove, connecting foster care youth with music teachers. Through this nonprofit work, she saw that there was a need for qualified teachers for paying customers as well as students. Karyn became interested in connecting people with quality music education through technology, and wanted to work with teachers to benefit youth in foster care. Care2Rock combines this social impact component with an affordable online platform, bringing together the best music teachers across the country.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Chris Bystrom of Ruca. Before investing in early-stage companies, Chris has a background running UX design firms in Chicago, Tokyo, and New York. He built large enterprise-grade software for clients and then ran his startup for two years. During that period, he had a chance to see what worked in that space and what did not. Jake wanted to create a different model and founded Ruca, a founder-support system for early-stage capital and advisory. 

On this episode, Hall welcomes Jay Olshansky Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at of Lapetus Solutions. Lapetus Solutions, Inc. (LSI) is a science and technology growth company dedicated to creating products and services that will revolutionize the prediction of life events. By combining biodemography, dynamic questioning, and facial analytics, while harnessing the power of cloud computing, our scientific approach delivers faster, more accurate results in real-time.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Luni Libes of Fledge, a global network of conscious company accelerators and impact investment funds. Luni is a serial entrepreneur. He started his first company in 1992. Luni then spent 20 years working with tech startups. Right around the 20-year mark, he decided to start a business accelerator and in that process, he started investing in startups.

In this episode, you’ll get Luni’s unique perspective and advice to those wanting to invest. Luni says the key is to see as many deals as you can before you jump in with two feet, but also to take a few steps back and look around and question everything. Luni sets himself apart from other investors by investing in a forum that's not typical. He invests in revenue-based equity. He invests in sectors and geographies that are not common.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Jimmy Frischling of Branded Strategic Hospitality. Before investing in early-stage companies, Jimmy has a career spanning just under 30 years in financial and capital markets. He started his career in investment banking with a firm called Kidder Peabody - which no longer exists - and was always on the sell-side working for firms such as Bear Stearns and Paine Webber. Jimmy then moved on to work with institutional and large banks with Florida Securities where he ran the US-structured credit team. There was a focus on debt and fixed income as well as illiquid, opaque and emerging asset classes.

In this episode, you’ll hear about Jimmy's path to investing in the hospitality technology sector as well as advice to new investors in the space. According to Jimmy, a key component is to be about people. Get to know the founder, the CEO and their leadership, the people they're surrounding themselves with, because that's going to be a big factor.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Danish Rizvi COO of ASA Ventures - ASA Ventures is a hybrid venture capital firm established in 2003 in Portugal and is currently headquartered in Dubai. It is the combined strength of professional expertise and smart capital, adding value to the start-up ecosystem with a unique investment philosophy and in-house expertise.

Danish has a career spanning over 20 years. He started working in logistics, supply to manufacturing but very quickly moved into the banking industry. He worked in risk management looking at investor needs in corporations. He later moved and was heavily involved in investment banking on the corporate-finance side and did private equity transactions, MNAs and was involved with trust transaction fund structuring as well as strategic planning development.

In this episode, Hall is joined by Tim Hoerr, CEO of Serra Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focusing primarily on technology companies in the Midwest and West Coast regions. With a background in tech entrepreneurship, he eventually founded a consulting firm which later became the venture firm Serra Ventures. Tim provides his advice for those entering into startup investing, and emphasizes diversification, the importance of the team, and embracing the long-term commitment.

In addition, Tim talks about how the startup investing world has changed and where he thinks it is heading in the future. He also discusses what he feels are the biggest impacts on returns, and the types of deals he looks for. He details a few of the firms they've had success with and why, and what to look out for in terms of risk. Finally, Tim touches on a few sectors he views as especially promising - AgTech and Healthcare Technology.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Janine Yorio of Compound Asset Management- Janine started her career in real estate right out of college working for a private equity firm called North Star Capital. While there she eventually worked her way up to portfolio manager and was able to work on all types of real estate deals from origination to exit, including some that were publicly traded. She then went on to be head of real estate development for Standard Hotels, in New York City, the development company that developed the Standard Hotel on the High Line and owned the Chateau Marmont in LA. She has always been at the intersection of real estate, financial engineering, and consumer brands. This gives her a unique perspective to bring real estate to the fin-tech landscape.

In this episode, you’ll hear Janine’s advice to those who’d like to enter the real estate fin-tech space. According to Janine, it's an enormous sector, it's the world's largest asset class and there are lots of opportunities to disrupt the category for people who are looking to bring a new perspective to what is otherwise a very entrenched and oftentimes, reluctant-to-change industry.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Ash Kaluarachchi of StartEd Accelerator. Prior to entering early stage investing in the education technology space, Ash was focusing on helping executives learn from each other. Ash worked with Executive Board in DC, introducing peer groups and best practice research into the corporate learning environment.
Ash explains his advice for those looking to invest in education technology, as well as some of the trends he sees in the space. He also discusses his investment thesis, and how the focus on education technology brings another layer--creating learning outcomes--on top of the typical criteria (team, market, product). Finally, you'll hear about some of the challenges specific to education technology, as well as a few of the immediate opportunities in the space.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Bradley Rotter of Entanglement Institute. In this episode, Hall and Brad speak about his early interest in markets as well as what led him to the impact sector. As a trader on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, it became apparent to Brad that it was an archaic system so he decided to move to California to be closer to technology and made investments as the internet started to boom. After 9/11 Brad decided to dedicate his time, energy and capital to those companies impacting the security of the Homeland. From his perspective, the unit of time is different than it used to be due to the internet. There is a need for investment in security and blockchain so he’s trying to personally impact the security of the Homeland by finding young companies early on and providing them with capital and advice to make them a reality.

On this episode, Hall welcomes Sajol Ghoshal of Advanced Telesensors. You'll learn about Sajol's beginning before Advanced Telesensors and what led him to where he is today.

Sajol developed his sensor career at Austrian Microsystems (AMS), a sensor company that acquired a startup he worked with called TAOS, Texas Advanced Optical Sensors. In that company, they developed multi-frequency optical sensing, initially just for the ambient light sensors market. However, later they migrated that technology into detecting of heart rate, SpO2, oxidation level in the body. In the process, Sajol learned a lot about wearable applications using optical sensors. This became his starting point in exploring sensor applications in the healthcare industry.

Sajol began his career with Level One Communications. Since then he has been working in startups.He focuses on driving value out of technology to intersect large markets, with $3 billion in total exits. Sajol has learned that you have to move fast while optimizing a design to target a critical market segment. You also have to be nimble enough to make changes so that you can address those market needs quickly.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Arthur Veytsman of Immerse. Before investing in early-stage companies, Arthur started his career UI consulting and after seven years of consulting work with various companies, decided to leave and invest in his businesses. According to Arthur, his thesis has always been how to apply technology to an operation to make it better and to make it more profitable. He wanted to start a business that's technology-oriented and work on some piece of technology that makes it better, amongst the competition. As an investor, he likes to invest in companies that he understands and can relate to.

Arthurs advice to new investors is to be careful about just great ideas because those are a dime a dozen. Many people can come up with good ideas, but the company that grabs his attention is one that has prior success and management team. Again, that success has to be proven in the same space. Even if an idea is mediocre, with the proper management team, it can happen.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Anu Shukla of Botco.ai. Before Botco.ai Anu started her career in Silicon Valley working for companies in the marketing, automation and E-commerce space. She then started a company called Rubric, it was one of the pioneers of defining enterprise marketing automation, there were no enterprise tools for marketing available before that, and the company had a successful exit. She then went on to found a company called Offerpal, which changed its name to Tapjoy. It was a mobile advertising network that reached hundreds of millions of users. Anu was also in the payment space with a company called RewardsPay, which she still runs, that does alternative currency payments and now involved with investing and working with a team to get Botco.ai off the ground.

In this episode, you'll hear Anu's unique views on the AI space and what advice she'd give to those investing. According to Anu, she's a firm believer in AI but one must define what that means. The time for AI and its permeation into all different types of computing has come. So whether you talk about self-driving cars, or robots in factories, or in the case of software you talk about artificial intelligence being applied to marketing and sales or customer surveys, where it's trying to initiate and manage conversations and natural language, she thinks it's permeating everywhere and is a big area of investment.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Moshe Shadmon of AnyLog. Moshe shares his journey before Anylog. According to Moshe, his entire career has revolved around big data projects in companies he founded. Previously his company ScaleDB was a time-series database that optimized time-series data, which is the data generated from sensors and smart devices. This background eventually led Moshe to start Anylog. He saw the challenges that companies are facing when they had huge amounts of IoT data. So, it's not just about the huge amount of data, it's also about the velocity and the speed in which the data appears. It created an interesting challenge for Anylog to address. Also, he noticed the technology, which is based on the blockchain and all of that created the idea that there could be a different way to manage data, that toggle data needs a different platform and that's what he’s done in AnyLog.

In this episode, Hall is joined by Amos Schwartzfarb, Managing Director of Techstars and author of the
book Sell More Faster. Amos discusses the background behind his new book, and how it got published.
He also details some of the specific sales challenges facing startups, and some of the biggest sales
mistakes he sees startups make. Amos talks about a few of the big misconceptions startups often have
about sales, and looks at some of the ways sales is evolving in today's technology markets. Finally, he provides his invaluable advice to startups on how to approach building a repeatable, scalable sales
process.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Gabriel Wyner of Fluent-Forever, an exciting new language learning app. Gabriel talks about his background as an opera singer and mechanical engineer, and his passion for language. He also discusses the language education space and where it is evolving, particularly for online tools and mobile users. Gabriel talks about what is driving growth in the space, and some of the challenges in a crowded market. He gives his advice to investors, and the need to focus on companies and products that will be able to retain customers, not just acquire them short-term. Finally, Gabriel highlights some of the things that make Fluent-Forever stand out from the competition.

In this episode, Hall is joined by Lance Dietz of Chicago-based KB Partners, an early-stage Venture Capital firm. Daniel touches on his background in Chicago, before he came to the KB and the venture world. He discusses how KB came to the sports and technology space, and his advice for investors looking to get into that area. Lance also talks about the sports-betting space and how it is evolving with technology-driven companies on the enterprise side.

In addition, Lance lists some of the criteria he looks for in a startup and details some of the companies they've worked with and why. Finally, Lance talks about the challenges of keeping focus in a fast-growing industry with a constant crop of new startups.

In this episode, Hall interviews Marc Michel of Runway Venture Partners, a New York-based early-stage investing firm focused on post-seed growth companies. Marc talks about his extensive investing background before founding Runway VP. While Runway is focused on SaaS businesses, it also focuses on filling a funding gap between seed funds and typical series-A funds.
Marc details some of the companies he's invested in and why, as well as highlights some of the challenges in the SaaS space today. Finally, Marc discusses the technologies he's particularly excited about, such as machine learning, data science and AI capabilities.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Tomas Martunas of Iron Wolf Capital, an international Venture Capital firm based in Vilnius, Lithuania and London. After 12 years in the banking industry, Tomas began engaging with and investing in early-stage startups, B2B, ecommerce, crypto-related projects, and more. With this breadth of experience, Tomas provides a wealth of advice for would-be investors in many sectors.
Tomas delves into some of the changes he sees coming to the early stage investing space and highlights some of the startups he's worked with. He also highlights some of the challenges with early-stage investing, focusing on product flexibility and ease of transition. Finally, Tomas touches on some sectors and applications he feels are particularly promising.

In this episode, Hall is joined by Daniel Ibri of Mindset Ventures, an international Venture Capital firm. Daniel highlights his background in strategic consulting, as well as his work as a mentor and teacher in Brazil, before he came to the venture world. He explains his focus on the B2B sector and how Mindset helps startups penetrate markets in Latin America. Daniel provides key advice for investors looking to break into the B2B sector, focusing both on team as well as product.
Daniel also discusses how the B2B space is evolving, and how, despite being often overlooked, is ripe with opportunity for investment. In addition, Daniel talks about the Brazilian market, and some of the advantages to be found there. Finally, Daniel explains a few of the challenges in the B2B space and how to meet them.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Mike Jones of Science, Inc., a Los Angeles-based startup studio and venture capital firm. Mike highlights his background as an internet entrepreneur, CEO, and Angel Investor. Mike provides some invaluable advice for would-be early-stage investors, emphasizing diversification. Mike also provides insight into the internet sector and where it is heading as legacy businesses struggle to adapt or decline.

Mike discusses the importance of actively expanding your knowledge within your chosen sector and using that knowledge to build your investment thesis. In addition, he lists some of his startup success stories as well as what he sees as the top challenges for startups. Finally, Mike takes a detailed look at the regulatory risks in the internet space.

In this episode, Hall interviews Felipe Luna, CEO of Omniscient. Omniscient is a fintech data analytics and software development firm and developer of the fast-growing Omniscient CRM platform.  Felipe talks about his start in retail financial services and financial advising, and how he moved into the wealth tech space through the development of Omniscient CRM. He explains the focus of wealth tech, the direction the sector is evolving, and how it fits within the broader fintech space.

In addition, Felipe reviews some of the major players in the sector, and where he thinks the best opportunities and returns will be. He also focuses on some of the challenges, from legacy software and databases to cybersecurity. Finally, Felipe and Hall discuss the future of the wealth tech space and some of the transformation we can expect to take place there.

You can find Omniscient at https://omniscientcrm.com/

You can find Felipe on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/felipeluna/

In this episode, Hall is joined by Edward Corona of New York-based FinTech Merchant Accounts, a specialty firm providing the leading payment processing platform for the equity financing and crowdfunding industries. Edward touches on his extensive background in financial services and fintech, before explaining how FinTech Merchant Accounts came into being.

In addition, Edward talks about the current state of crowdfunding, and how crowd direct and blockchain will shape the future of that space. Edward and Hall also discuss some of the regulatory challenges on the horizon, how Reg A has widened the investor pool, and difficulties in managing payment processes. Finally, Edward speaks about some of the sectors he feels are especially promising.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Dan Conner of St. Louis-based Ascend Venture Capital. Before coming into investing, Dan worked as an engineer, primarily in the oil, biofuel, and wind energy industries. After getting his MBA, Dan ended up in the VC world, in the enterprise sector. According to Dan, he owes his success to 'putting in the legwork', researching thousands of companies to find the select few he likes.

Dan talks about how the enterprise industry is evolving, how traction metrics are being looked at in earlier stages, and how corporate and strategic buyers are becoming more and more selective. Dan also explains his investment thesis, focusing on companies that are unique or approaching their space in a unique way, and provides some examples of the companies he's worked with. In addition, he discusses some of the challenges in the enterprise space, and some of the applications and sectors he thinks are particularly ripe with opportunity.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Karen Rands, author of Inside Secrets to Angel Investing. Karen discusses her background prior to early-stage investing, working at IBM as a business manager. She covers topics ranging from the world of angel investing, her advice to investors, and some of the many ways you can get started as an investor today.

Karen also talks about how investing in a startup can be more of a commitment than many new investors realize, and emphasizes the importance of research, due diligence, and compatibility between the startup and the investor. In addition, Hall and Karen discuss the roles of incubator and accelerator programs, and how they've changed the face of investing. You'll also learn about Karen's thoughts on crowdfunding, promising sectors, and what she calls "compassionate capitalism".

On this episode, Hall is joined by Bob Bridge of the Southwest Angel Network. Before becoming an angel investor he began his career earning a PHD in computer engineering, which led him to work with high-tech startups, semiconductors and hardware systems. Along the way, he decided that he wanted something different and more meaningful,so he decided to go into angel investing.

The Southwest Angel Network focuses on investing in early-stage social good, social impact companies.

In this episode, Bob shares his advice for impact investing. According to him, you don't look for the unicorns, but rather focus on two factors, the ability to provide a financial return, but more importantly, having the companies convince you that they positively affect societal or environmental problems.

In this episode, Hall is joined by Hélène Thibieroz, founder and senior managing partner of We Grow Green Tech.

We Grow Green Tech focuses on accelerating growth for green technology innovation and impact by partnering with early to late-stage companies.

Hélène has an extensive background in technology. She received her PHD in Electrical Engineering from Toulouse, France. For over 20 years, Hélène worked successively as a research engineer for advanced technologies at Motorola, in Austin. She then switched to large electronic design automation corporations where she evolved into marketing, sales, business strategy and management.

In this episode you’ll learn why Hélène shifted her carrier three years ago to enter the green technology space- she has a passion for the environment and a love of technology. She strongly believes technology can be successfully applied to create impactful practical business solutions while making an impact for our future.

On this episode, Hall is joined by John Cooper of Minimelife. John has practiced healthcare for most of his life and for the last 14 years as an attending vascular surgeon at Virtual Health System in New Jersey. Over his career, John has witnessed better outcomes when patients are directly involved with their healthcare. He found that if he can illustrate the medical information to patients the better they seem to understand their health. So he decided to create Minimelife, an application that not only teaches, but also puts the control into the patients' hands for their medical records. 

In this episode John shares his advice for investors in healthcare  from his perspective as a provider. He says many patients are realizing that some of the biggest problems today are involvement in their healthcare decisions. So anything that helps patients' involvement, management and even communication, would be highly successful in the healthcare market. 

In this episode, Hall is joined by Patrick Juthberg of Carable, an automotive marketplace that connects
buyers to sellers directly, completely removing the middleman. Patrick, who hails from Sweden,
considers himself a “serial” entrepreneur and has been solving problems for companies for most of his
life.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Paul Van Kleef of Nannocare. Before Nannocare, Paul started his career attending business school in Los Angeles which led him to work with various consulting companies. Along the way, he decided that his true passion was startups and embarked on starting his own company. Paul began working with product distribution on a massive scale and decided he’d like to get into the healthcare space. More specifically, he focused on the fem tech space helping women.

In this episode, Paul shares his thoughts on the quickly growing feminine technology space and what he thinks investors should be on the lookout for. There are many startups and a huge amount of energy going into feminine technologies. Though the space has not changed much over the years, it is important to really look for those innovative products.  Currently, it is a $20-$25 billion industry dominated by legacy brands, but there are a surge of startups disrupting the industry.

In this episode, Hall is joined by Damon Torgerson of Alludo. As the episode begins you’ll learn more about Damon's background prior to Alludo and what led him on the path to education. He began his career in enterprise IT consulting work, with a technical background and worked for Microsoft consulting both educational and Fortune 50 companies. While working with these companies, he and his partner decided to focus exclusively on K12 due to what some called an underserved market. 

Damon shares his thoughts and advice he’d give to investors wanting to jump into education. According to Damon, there's a tremendous amount of opportunity within the ed-tech space, but to be aware that sales cycles are a little bit longer, a little bit slower, so you don't see a fast takeoff. Although slow to start, you also see an opportunity for longer lifetime value, larger lifetime values, so it takes longer to get into education, but you typically can last within education and a lot longer as well.  

Hall and Damon also discuss challenges, including regulatory, market, and technology. Damon speaks about his company Alludo and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. 

In this episode, Hall is joined by Eric Smith of AppBrilliance. AppBrilliance, Inc. is a privately held company based in Austin, TX. 

As the episode kicks off you’ll learn about Eric’s background prior to AppBrilliance. Before this, Eric ran Unwired Banking, which was a venture-backed mobile banking startup based in Austin. You’ll also learn what led him to the fin-tech sector as well as pointers for first-time investors that want to invest in the fin-tech space. According to Eric, it's a challenging space to invest in because there is a pretty broad

disconnect between the traction that you need to have and the ability to scale.  

Eric and Hall speak about where he sees the fin-tech industry evolving as well as what technologies are really driving the growth rate in the sector. 

In this episode, Hall is joined by Shawn Flynn of Silicon Valley-based TechCode. Before Shawn began investing in early-stage companies, he spent over 4 years living and conducting business in Beijing, China. While there, he founded three companies, one of which succeeded. Returning to the U.S., he ended up in Silicon Valley working at a startup in sales. After making contacts and meeting angel investors, he started volunteering, working his way up to the investment director of the Angel Group. Eventually, he was recruited by TechCode to work in business development and screen potential companies.

Shawn shares his advice on investing in startups, especially for those who are just now beginning their career. Shawn advises investors to have a long-term mindset and ask a lot of questions before they write their first check. He also talks about trends in the venture market, such as overseas companies being further along before they try to enter the Silicon Valley market.

Shawn speaks about TechCode's investment thesis, and some of the companies they've brought on. He also discusses some of the challenges, such as uncertainty with regulatory issues as it relates to overseas investing. Shawn goes over some of the sectors he feels are especially promising for the future. Finally, he emphasizes the importance of long-term strategy, patience when it comes to raising funding, and building relationships.

On this episode, Hall is joined by James Wang of Creative Ventures. Before early stage investing, James started out at the hedge fund Brightwater Associates. His background in both finance and technology led him to really being able to focus on risk investing. At Creative Ventures, they tend to look at the biggest problems facing the world at the moment and go after those with the same focus. James highlights two risks that you can face when investing in early stage startups. First, there's the execution risk in terms of picking the right team. Second, there are the market risks--if you're trying to go after a market as an early stage investor, you need to look for something that's going to be around for an extended period. As James advises, it is important to have both a problem and a space as a starting point to really have the returns that you're looking for.

Hall and James also discuss his unique perspective on investing in the deep technology space, as well as some of the advice he’d give to others wanting to branch out into this space. Creative Ventures makes it a point to research and understand problems and challenges well, and then talk to like-minded startups that tackle those problems. In the deep technology space, James advises that it is important to know whether the technology you're investing in has a real-world market, rather than something that is in a research and development stage that may not pay off for many years. James talks about the current state of investing in deep tech, and how that space is evolving. In addition, James provides some examples of specific technologies, and some of the startups pursuing them, that Creative has invested in. Finally, James discusses how a lack of focus is something to look out for when investing in deep tech.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Rodolfo Bellesi of Ikove Capital, a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization in the Midwest. An engineer, Rodolfo actually started his career with real estate development out of Boston. He later returned to his alma mater, Ohio State, where he began investing in university technology.

Rodolfo shares his advice to people just starting to invest in startups. He stresses the importance of the team, and of ensuring each component of the team is focusing on their specialty. You’ll also learn Ikove’s venture development studio and how it works.

Rodolfo also talks about the venture capital industry, and how it has moved to a later stage in the process. In addition, he discusses the challenges of building an ‘ecosystem’ of companies within the venture studio model, and provides some examples of companies that fit particularly well with this model.

On this episode, Hall is joined by Flavio Lobato of Ikove Capital, a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization in the Midwest. Hailing from Brazil, Flavio started his career in investment banking after graduating business school. He then went to work with Goldman Sachs in the 90’s and then began to focus on alternative investments.

Flavio shares his advice to people just starting to invest in startups. He stresses how crucial due diligence is for the success of having a positive return profile. You’ll also learn his unique perspective on how the industry is evolving. In particular, Flavio points out the disproportionate amount of investing being focused on a few companies., and what this means in terms of early-stage strategy.

Flavio also talks about their venture development methodology, and why they’ve focused on the Midwest region. Finally, Flavio discusses some of the challenges in venture development, as well as a few of the opportunities or sectors he feels are worth exploring.

On this episode Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Mendy Ouzillou of MMOmentum Consulting. In this episode, Mendy illuminates the concept of 'points of friction'.  As Mendy explains, points of friction are any number of things that get in the way of achieving your goals. Mendy focuses on how this concept applies to pre-money startups and pre-revenue businesses, and what they can do to minimize points of friction.

Mendy begins by taking a look at the audience's (in this case, the customer's) state of mind. In general, an audience has expectations, and if those are not met, then the audience has trouble moving on from those expectations. Points of friction prevent an audience from following a presenter - these points of friction often take the form of 'unanswered questions'. Mendy elaborates on the types of unanswered questions, and how they cause friction between the presenter and the audience.

Mendy shows how presenters cause points of friction through incorrect assumptions about the audience, lack of preparation, or by confusing or boring their audience. Finally, Mendy details some of the specific things you can do in a pitch to avoid points of friction.

In this episode, Hall is joined by Rita Sudheer of Asa Ventures. As the episode begins, you’ll learn about Rita's background prior to Asa Ventures- Arif Saiyad & Associados (ASA) Ventures, established in 2003 in Portugal and headquartered in Dubai, works on hybrid models of Venture Capital. Rita talks about the state of venture investing in the UAE and the Middle East, and how is the industry evolving. She says there are a lot of new incubators and funds and accelerator programs that have been created and the investment in entrepreneurial ventures have increased notably in, in the Middle East. You’ll also learn Rita’s advice to those investing in the sector as well as challenges and risks she sees. She also says the UAE is a strategic location between the East and West, which makes it accessible to some of the major emerging economies. It's a strategic place and there's a lot of room to grow and experiment. 

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Nathan Low of Raanana Ziontech Partners. With a background in semiconductor production, logistics, and manufacturing, Nathan started his angel investing career in Israel, eventually expanding to New York and Silicon Valley. Nathan first discusses the importance of diversification for Angel investors, before diving into his experience as an investing and consulting in Israel. Nathan goes into detail on the investing landscape in Israel, and why investments there often have better valuation.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Dougal Cameron of Golden Section Ventures. Dougal came to investing through his family, which provided him operational insight into an investor perspective. Dougal talks about how he and Isaac Shi founded Golden Section Ventures and came into the B2B Enterprise SaaS space. Dougal provides advice investors in the B2B Enterprise space. He highlights the need for 'healthy skepticism', finding partners that know the end user market, and resisting the urge to chase investments down round. Finally, Dougal advises investors to seek out founders that are very invested, and that have no way out but to make the deal a success.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Skyler Fernandes of Venture University. Skyler has an extensive background in venture capital and private equity. Venture University, now over a year old, is a multistage venture fund, primarily focused on the seed and series A stage. Venture University sources deals from several areas, including consumer enterprise, Fintech, blockchain healthcare, and 'frontier tech'. Skyler talks about how Venture University fulfills the increasing need for a scalable funding model. In addition, Venture University is also part 'trade school', a competitive training program with a full-time admissions team for people to get into venture capital and private equity.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Chris Fisher of Click Ventures.  With a background in corporate IT, Chris started his angel investing career in Hong Kong, where he eventually teamed up with Carman Chan of Click Ventures. Chris explains how Click Ventures focuses on primarily series A startups using network effects. He explains how network effects can lower customer acquisition costs and create aggressive growth. Click Ventures is very quantitatively focused, seeking to drive the model forward faster as well as use the data that's being generated to make better decisions.

Chris discusses market trends in network effects, in particular as it relates to consumer privacy. In addition, he provides a small-scale example of the type of startup Click looks for - a high-end photography equipment rental company in NYC. Chris and Hall talk about some of the challenges to consider when funding network effects startups. Chris explains how the sector can be highly competitive from an investment standpoint, which means that it is important for investors to be able to add value above and beyond the funding. Finally, Chis highlights how blockchain can and will impact network-based startups in the future.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Jay Joshi of MD Angels. Jay, a physician by training, went through undergrad and medical school at the same time in an accelerated medical program. It was there he discovered that he looks at medicine a little differently than the traditional physician. He felt his perspective was different and he thought that would translate into hospital administration. Between medical school and his residency, he learned that he liked to take risks and was a little bit more entrepreneurial and venture-oriented, as opposed to the more risk-averse nature that you'll typically see in health care. This led him to his first startup, a medical device company. Though that, he learned that many investors in the Midwest considered pre-revenue medical device companies too risky. So, he gravitated towards physicians.

Jay found that in the investment community, physicians are often a disparate group of investors that don't always have the cohesion necessary to make the right decisions. And so, along with some of the physician investors who came in on his medical device company Output Medical, he ended up creating what is now the largest physician-based angel investment group in the Midwest, MD Angels.

In this episode, Jay speaks about MD Angels’ focus within the healthcare space. He gives some insight into the key startup criteria that lead to successful funding. In addition, Hall and Jay discuss where the healthcare industry is heading, regulatory considerations, and much more.  

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Steve Shapiro of eHealth Ventures. Before eHealth, Steve spent years in the cell phone industry before transitioning to a career in consulting and angel investing. He partnered with Israeli-based digital health investor Talor Sax in creating eHealth Ventures, a digital health incubator with a focus on Israeli innovation.

Steve explains how he came to focus on the digital health sector, and why and how Israel has been at the forefront of innovation, particularly in the healthcare space.

Steve goes on to give advice for potential investors in the space. To Steve, and new digital health technology must solve a problem. Secondly, in the healthcare sector, you must understand the sectors unique revenue and payment process. Finally, it is critical to grasp the strict regulatory processes.

In addition, Steve discusses how the health care industry is evolving, and what changes we can expect in the future. For example, Steve highlights the shift from traditional in-person healthcare to a telehealth ecosystem. He also discusses how the healthcare industry is leveraging applied analytics. Finally, Steve discusses eHealth's investment thesis, some of the companies they've funded, and why.

In this episode, Chris gives his thoughts on how the industry is evolving. He discusses how we are headed towards e-commerce first or e-commerce only, not as a supplement to physical retail.

You’ll also get his advice to those investing in this space as well as challenges and risks.

In this episode, Hall interviews Lawrence Lerner of Pithia, an investment firm focusing on "blockchain realism". Pithia’s thesis emphasizes foundational businesses that enable blockchain infrastructure.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Jake Moilanen of Seraph Group.

As we kick off, Jake talks about what he did prior to investing in early stage startups. A self described geek, Jake started out working in computer programming. After getting out of that space, and getting his MBA, he headed to Silicon Valley and began immersing himself in the startup world, which eventually led to investing.

Jake talks about the three advantages you can have as an investor - informational, analytical, and behavioral. He goes on to explain how he sees early stage investing as an opportunity to use all three, and why early stage investing appeals to him.

Jake explains how, to succeed in early stage funding, you really need to have an ‘edge’. As he puts it, “if you're going to start out in the area, [the] thing you need to do is go in an area that you know better than someone else.” In addition, Jake highlights the importance of diversification when it comes to early stage investing.

Jake discusses where he sees the startup investment world headed, particularly as it pertains to overvaluation. Additionally, Jake talks about some of the challenges of measuring long term risk with startups, and how quant algorithms can help. Finally, Jake highlights some of the sectors he feels are especially promising for investment in the near future.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Jake Moilanen of Seraph Group.

As we kick off, Jake talks about what he did prior to investing in early stage startups. A self described geek, Jake started out working in computer programming. After getting out of that space, and getting his MBA, he headed to Silicon Valley and began immersing himself in the startup world, which eventually led to investing.

Jake talks about the three advantages you can have as an investor - informational, analytical, and behavioral. He goes on to explain how he sees early stage investing as an opportunity to use all three, and why early stage investing appeals to him.

Jake explains how, to succeed in early stage funding, you really need to have an ‘edge’. As he puts it, “if you're going to start out in the area, [the] thing you need to do is go in an area that you know better than someone else.” In addition, Jake highlights the importance of diversification when it comes to early stage investing.

Jake discusses where he sees the startup investment world headed, particularly as it pertains to overvaluation. Additionally, Jake talks about some of the challenges of measuring long term risk with startups, and how quant algorithms can help. Finally, Jake highlights some of the sectors he feels are especially promising for investment in the near future.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Venture Partners. Nicole focuses on early stage consumer technology companies, having invested in companies such as Zola, Rothy’s, Daily Harvest, Dote, Brandable, Girlboss and Goop.

Nicole spent nearly a decade at Morgan Stanley covering the European and US e-commerce, retail and consumer companies. In 2014, she went to Nutmeg, a London-based technology company, and completed a fund raise of $32m in their Series B. She’s passionate about angel investing in healthcare and consumer companies.

Hall and Nicole discuss the state of media investing. Nicole explains that, although some investors are cooling, there is still something there to be had. However, instead of just looking at media as ad revenue, Nicole highlights some of the other avenues that merit a look. Nicole also highlights which sectors in media she believes are gaining momentum and traction, and where she thinks the early wins will occur. In addition, Nicole provides expert advice for investors joining the media sector.

In this episode, Hall interviews John Pope and James Walker of WellDog, an energy-focused technical services company that provides practical engineering and business solutions in a high volume, cost effective manner with a remarkable customer focus.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Kalman Saffran of Summa Management.As the episode kicks off, Kal speaks about his background before Summa Management. A self described  businessman/scientist/engineer, Kal started out at the laboratory of the nucleus science at MIT. He then became an entrepreneur founding three companies, one of which is Summa Management. In between MIT and building businesses, Kal was also a corporate staff member at a fortune 100 company, United Brands Company.Kal and his partners jumped into the Ai space after selling off a previous company. After researching state of the art ideas in the field it was determined that a new theory had to be developed and that theory would be dependent upon large amounts of data and large amounts of processing. So they took a so called big data approach to the data and artificial intelligence approach to the process.In this episode, Kal gives his advice for people jumping into the Ai space and what to look for. He says that investors should look for new out of the box approaches to quantitative trading. Those should hold the highest returns.Kal also gives his views on where he sees big data in the Ai space moving and most importantly, where it is evolving. He also gives advice to those looking to invest and much more.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Mick Connors, CEO and Founder at Anytime Pediatrics and Anytime Telehealth, Inc.

Mick was inspired to get into the medical field and pediatrics after his brother passed away from pediatric cancer before he was born. It's been a lifelong passion. In his career in pediatric emergency medicine he is seeing more and more fragmentation of care, with children going into many different varieties of healthcare opportunities. When he developed the concept of Anytime pediatrics, he wanted to connect patients and families to the right care at the right time.

Mick gives his advice on what investors should look at when going into and investing in healthcare. According to Mick, in general everyone is looking for ways to save costs. He encourages the investors to look at the long track record of the medical home, the primary care practices, because the data is all there. Connecting patients with their primary care provider and not fragmenting care is really the only thing that's ever been shown to lower healthcare costs. His hope is that investors will see that opportunity through solutions. As with Anytime Pediatrics, they're trying to create that hub back to the primary care provider and then be able to connect them with all the important services that they need.

In this episode, Hall and Mick also discuss the growth rate of telemedicine technology and approximately how many companies are involved. They also speak about the challenges and risks that need to be overcome. They also touch on how Anytime Pediatrics puts trust into the system.

In this episode of Investor Connect, Hall is joined by Jon Glesinger and Leslie Ackerman of Comprindeo. Jon started his career in the tech sector in the 80’s, coming out with the first IBM computers. This then led him to his first computer startup involving design of CAD/CAM. Working extensively with unstructured data around people led Jon to build platforms in the HR space, ultimately leading to Comprindeo.

After college, Leslie’s met musicians in London who were having trouble finding affordable studio space. They decided to purchase and rent out studios to musicians in need. At the same time, Leslie was involved with a band that was one of the first to sell albums online. This led to a development of a merchandise platform to sell albums and marketing materials.

In this episode you will learn why they focus on AI and deep learning technology. More than half of the internet data is already in video format of some kind. This presents a challenge - how do you find out the content of podcasts and videos online? Jon and Leslie explain how Comprindeo uses AI to unbundle that hidden data.

Jon and Leslie share what advice they’d give to investors joining the AI space as well as what they should know about AI and deep learning before investing. They’ll also discuss challenges you have to overcome when you're building a deep learning or AI application.

Hall is joined by Donald Stalter of Global Founders Capital. After graduating from the University of Chicago, Donald started out as an investment banker at Credit Suisse in the MNA group in San Francisco. While there, he handled deals like Google/YouTube and Google/DoubleClick which led to the opportunity to do deals in Brazil and in Europe. This peaked his interest on the international side very early on. Donald then joined a growth fund out of London, a spinoff of Jefferies Investment Bank. In this episode, you’ll also learn about Donald's investment focus on consumer businesses and a little about what he is currently working on. Hall and Donald speak about emerging areas in the blockchain sector, his advice to those investing in the blockchain startup world as well as his views on where he sees it going and evolving.

In this episode, Hall interviews Yoon Choi of Forest Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investments in innovative technologies in the areas of mobility, AI, and data analytics.

Yoon provides some broad advice for early-stage investors, and highlights some of the developments and trends in the mobility industry, including electric vehicles, autonomy, and data processing and analytics. Yoon talks about the state of investing in the space, and her main investment thesis for mobility solutions - practicality and scalability. Hall and Yoon discuss some aspects in urban transit, and how it is representative of the larger themes of mobility and integration.

Finally, Yoon and Hall discuss some of the challenges in investing in mobility technologies, and some of the immediate investment opportunities out there.

In this episode, Hall interviews Michel Wendell of Nexit Ventures, the oldest and most experienced VC fund in Finland, focusing on digital disruption. Michel Wendell has 20 years of broad experience in launching and managing international Infocom companies, with expertise in the changing dynamics of globalizing markets and rapidly developing technologies.

Michel provides some broad advice for investors in early-stage companies. He goes on to discuss some of the trends in the European startup industry, and some of the advantages of investing in European companies. Michel talks about some of the challenges European startups face in moving to the US, and the advantages and challenges of doing a so called 'Delaware flip'.

Finally, Michel and Hall discuss some of the specific sectors that may be most ripe for investment in Europe.

In this episode, Hall interviews Mary Ann Azevedo, business writer for Crunchbase News. Crunchbase is the leading destination for millions of users to discover industry trends, investments, and news about global companies–from startups to the Fortune 1000.

Mary Ann and Hall focus their discussion on the construction tech sector. Historically, the construction industry is one that has been slow to innovate. However, Mary Ann highlights some of the reasons why it has a lot of potential and is ripe for disruption. Mary Ann provides some advice for potential investors in the construction space. A founding team that has first-hand experience in the field is a big advantage.

Mary Ann talks about how rising costs have played a big role in fueling innovation as companies seek to build new efficiencies in the space. While the number of startups in construction is not as many as in other spaces, there is still a large opportunity for funding. Mary Ann explains that, since construction is such a big area, there are opportunities in a variety of component industries - from HR, to project management, to manufacturing.

In this episode, Hall talks with Bill Leake, CEO of Apogee Results, an Austin-based digital marketing agency. Bill and Hall discuss how companies can move their marketing functions from a startup stage to a growth stage company.

Bill briefly talks about his extensive and varied professional background. Bill and Hall then discuss some of the differences between marketing at startup companies and marketing at growth companies, and what their goals are. Bill details why the tech stacks for startups and growth companies shouldn't mirror those of more mature companies. He recommends that startups remain "light and flexible" in their marketing approach. Once they've reached the growth stage, he advises, additional support systems are needed. Bill goes on to provide detailed discussion of the challenges involved in implementing tech stacks.

Bill talks about how seed-stage companies can go about choosing which marketing channel to focus on. In addition, Bill and Hall discuss how to handle the marketing transition from a seed-stage to growth stage company. Finally, Bill provides some advice on marketing budgets for different levels.

In this episode, Hall interviews Brooke Waupsh, co-founder of Swoovy, a new and unique online dating app. Brooke has 15 years of experience in the consumer sector and has developed expertise in research and consumer insight.

Brooke talks about some of the factors that define the online dating industry, including an overview of several of the major players. Brooke goes on to discuss the market trends of consolidation, but also how the vast demand means that new smaller players can still be extremely lucrative. She discusses some of the unique advantages in the sector, as well as the specific pitfalls that happen when you must balance a need for rapid customer growth while still bringing in revenue.

Finally, Brooke explains how Swoovy has approached the online dating space, with a focus on in-person connections. She also touches on Swoovy's distinctive integration with social and community impact-driven non-profit and volunteer work.

In this episode, Hall interviews John Fein of Firebrand Ventures, a Midwest-oriented venture fund focused on seed-stage software startups. John is an experienced entrepreneur and founder, who got into startup investing with Techstars in Kansas City.

In this episode, Hall interviews Nathan Scripps of Common Sense Growth, a for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Common Sense Media, which is the largest and leading nonprofit for school-age kids and their families in the country. Nathan honed his investing knowledge through his early experiences with automotive startups. He relates how he came to Common Sense Growth, and how the idea of working in a nonprofit governed environment, focused on improving the lives of kids, appealed to him.

In this episode, Hall interviews Andrii Zamovsky of Ambisafe, a blockchain software company specializing in software for financial markets. Ambisafe builds complex infrastructure on the blockchain, and provides end-to-end token sale infrastructure. As Andrii puts it, their "mission is to democratize financial markets, to ensure the maximum financial inclusion and make sure that everyone can use the same services like changes, investment services, fundraising and so on".

In this episode, Hall interviews Eric Rosenblum of Tsingyuan Ventures, a technology-focused venture fund based in Los Altos, California.

Tsingyuan invests in seed to A-round startups in the United States, and is a successor fund to the TEEC Angel Fund. Eric talks about his start investing in China and how they formed their investment thesis. Specifically, they consider investments that are comparatively valuable in China, that can assemble a team that can function well in China, and that focus on cross-disciplinary technology.

In this episode, Hall interviews William Chu of SparkLabs FinTech, a global accelerator program focused on helping promising early-stage fintech companies develop and scale in various markets across the globe.

After some success in private equity in Hong Kong, William wanted to get more involved in early stage investing. When Korea-based SparkLabs was looking to expand into China and other areas, William put together a partnership with China's Ping An, a world-leading personal financial services provider. Willam elaborates on SparkLabs FinTech, their particular interests in FinTech, Healthcare, and Smart Cities, and how those interest overlap.

In this episode, Hall interviews Terry Koehler, a golf industry entrepreneur. Terry talks about some of the characteristics of the golf space, and what led him to become an entrepreneur. Terry discusses the stability of the multi-billion dollar golf industry, and how it an industry that works well for the right investor that is knowledgeable and passionate about the sport.

Terry explains how the golf industry is like other consumer product areas, but that, as luxury durable goods, golf products require perhaps a greater deal of awareness of your customers.As Terry puts it, this involves "learning about the people that are buying your product and learning how you can leverage them through the funnel of awareness to transaction to advocacy". One of the challenges that Terry has encountered is that many investors will defer to their local golf professional - someone who, while they may have local knowledge, is usually not an industry expert.

In this episode, Hall interviews Mike Krilivsky of RageOn!, an online store specializing in revolutionary, one-of-a-kind custom printing. RageOn! has developed a patent-pending, all-over-print technology that allows creators, brands, and artists to customize their own merchandise, from T-Shirts to socks to swim trunks. Their app allows users to upload images directly onto their merchandise using their handy app. And with the first-ever patent protection technology of its kind, brands and artists never have to worry about intellectual property theft, and can expect money on their account every time their IP is used.

In this episode, Hall interviews Kim Folsom of Founders First Capital. Kim is a serial tech entrepreneur for over 20 years, who has founded, grew, and funded six tech companies, exited three, and raised over 30 million in venture.

Kim talks about her start investing in the under-served service business space. Kim also discusses the attractiveness of the market from a impact investment standpoint, particularly for those looking to diversify their investment. Kim explains that the current number for impact investment is about 280 billion, and that number is growing at a very fast pace. At the same time, investors are recognizing that there's an investment gap in the growing sector of businesses started by under-served, underrepresented founders (women, minority, military veterans, etc.).

In this episode, Hall interviews Jorge Azpe and Samuel Gutierrez of Schok LLC, manufacturer of retail electronics, including tablets and cell phones.

Samuel and Jorge talk about how they got into the mobile device space, and the opportunities they saw there, particularly in the mid-tier of phones. They talk about some of the challenges in the manufacturing space - and what sets them apart in terms of quality of manufacturing and design. They've analyzed their competition and focused on several quality differentiators that will help set their products apart. Samuel and Jorge emphasize the importance of developing the right strategic partners on the manufacturing side. They also discuss some of the marketing, design, and price point choices they made, and why.

In this episode, Hall interviews Michael Zavet of Canada-based Hyperion Exchange, a platform for trading tokenized financial instruments using blockchain technology.

Michael and Hall discuss the current state of the crypto market in general, and the cryptocurrency market for real estate applications. Michael talks about some of the current blockchain application investments going on in the real estate space. Michael and Hall go over some of the regulatory hurdles that companies are now facing, and Hyperion's strategies for unlocking secondary markets.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Travis Farese of Real AI. Before founding Real AI, Travis had a previous career in oil and gas services with an engineering and business degree. Travis and partners then founded a services company, which they successfully sold right before the downturn in 2015. That, in turn, led him into commercial real estate.

Hall is joined by Ben Bennett, COO of Omnitude. Ben’s background has always been in the commercial side of businesses - anything from telesales, field sales, product sales, all the way through to more strategic and development roles in business. He eventually launched his own company, a consultancy, which focused on startups, enabling businesses to understand their value proposition and then then take it to market. It was on that journey that he met Chris Painter, future CEO of Omnitude.

Hall is joined by Douglas Raggio of Bias and Blind Spots. Before joining the VC world, Doug’s background was mostly consumer products and services. After college he worked for publicity firms. He then went from to high end consumer goods (Bentley, Lamborghini, Vespa). This led to sports marketing, (Nike, Motorola and Direct TV). He started a tech company with two friends which gave him his first real exposure to venture capital.

In his episode, Doug offers his advice to those wanting to invest in the CPG space- “ Have realistic expectation. I think that's probably very broad and candid advice. But food and beverage venture capital was created in back when unit costs weren't really a consideration. Scalability is quite infinite.”

Hall is joined by Yash Thukral and Sam Yaffa of TRITON FUNDS LLC. TRITON FUNDS LLC is the largest private student-managed investment fund in the nation. TRITON FUNDS provides students the invaluable opportunity to gain real-world experience investing alongside experienced financial professionals. We invest in high performing teams with revolutionary aspirations to grow their company into industry leaders. TRITON FUNDS creates an ecosystem that assists talented entrepreneurs in successfully launching their ideas and maintaining strong community ethical standards. We provide strategic capitalization, business development support, and engineered exits to organizations we believe have a viable future in the modern economy.

Hall is joined by Jason Cahill of McCune Capital. We kick off this episode learning about Jason's background before he  got into early stage investing and what led him there. Jason is an army veteran. He spent seven years of active duty from 1997 to 2004. Thematically as an investor, Jason looks at inefficient markets, but really inefficiency followed him throughout his career in the military. He felt it was inefficient people getting humans to be more efficient, more effective motivation and workforce management. Jason left the military in 2004 and became a consultant in and around the DC metro area. In 2012 he got his MBA, started a company, sold the company and has been investing ever since.

Hall is joined by Matthew Jordan of Limitless Crypto Investments. Before entering the crypto space, Matthews background was developing healthcare solutions for doctors and patients. He purchased his first Bitcoin in 2013 unsure of the technology and followed the same route as many others. He bought his first bitcoin in 2015. Matthew wasn't really sure about the tech, and looked at in terms of kind of having skin in the game. In the healthcare side, you actually look at personal health records, electronic health records, and you see the platform and how doctors transact data, how it goes back and forth, which hospitals use what and the network effect. And so that's when he came into the platform tokens in terms of these platforms like ethereum how they really caught his eye and he took a deep dive into the technology.Matthew says he started looking at some of the application tokens, looked at some of the application companies and basically started the fund in August 2017 and landed where he is now.

In the second part of a three-part interview, Hall is joined by William Santana Li of Knightscope. Bill is a seasoned entrepreneur, intrapreneur and former corporate executive at Ford Motor Company. He was founder and COO of GreenLeaf, which became the world's 2nd largest automotive recycler (now part of NASDAQ: LKQ) and has a BSEE from Carnegie Mellon University and MBA from University of Detroit Mercy.

In this episode, Hall and Bill speak more about the state of robotics. They speak about what stage we are at in the robot revolution, and what Bill predicts will happen in the next 12-24 months in the sector. You’ll also learn more about the challenges faced in the robotics field.

In the first episode in a three-part series, Hall is joined by William Santana Li of Knightscope. We kick off the episode learning about Bill’s past before joining Knightscope. Bill is a seasoned entrepreneur, intrapreneur and former corporate executive at Ford Motor Company. He was founder and COO of GreenLeaf, which became the world's 2nd largest automotive recycler (now part of NASDAQ: LKQ) and has a BSEE from Carnegie Mellon University and MBA from University of Detroit Mercy.

In this episode, Bill and Hall speak about the state of autonomous technology. Are we going to be all being chauffeured in self-driving cars in the next couple of years? They speak about how much money is being invested in autonomous self-driving technology, how many companies are working on the same, major challenges and barriers, and what Knightscope has done in this field.

In this episode, we are joined by Aaron Michaels of 1984 Ventures. Hall and Aaron kick of this episode learning about Aarons background before investing in early stage companies. Aaron has seen both sides of investing both from the startup angle as well as a CEO, he shares advice he’d give to someone investing in startups. As the interview progresses you’ll learn about the investment thesis at 1984 Ventures- They invest in back office, healthcare, fintech and other companies disrupting mature, stable and antiquated industries. Aaron also speaks about challenges, risks and immediate opportunities to pursue in his chosen sector.

Hall is joined by Christian Kameir of Sustany Capital. Hall and Christian kick off this episode diving into Christians background before investing in early stage companies. Starting in the 80’s with computer programming, Christian is a technologist at heart. He then got a law degree and did regulatory work for the general federal communication commision. After recently hosting the Emerge ICO Summit, one of the key takeaways is that everything that can be digitized on the blockchain, will be digitized. Hall and Christian discuss his outlook on digitized assets.