5 Investor Podcasts Discuss A Wide Variety Of Startup Interests

There are currently about 500 funds spanning pre-seed, seed, post-seed, pre-Series A and startup investing is constantly evolving. Entrepreneurs with an eye on financing need to keep up with the trends and special interests of VCs, Angels and seed investors. Have a listen to my recent 30-minute podcast interviews with five investors who have a wide range of interests, from AI concepts to women entrepreneurs, from Indian startups to non-Unicorn ventures. Perhaps your startup fits within one of their areas of interest?

Ankit Jain is Founding Partner at Gradient Ventures, Google’s new AI venture fund, which will invest in and connect early stage startups with Google’s resources, innovation, and technical leadership in artificial intelligence.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Charlie O’Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: I was talking to John Staenberg up in Seattle. He’s one of the most prolific investors in the North West. He’s invested in 300 companies. One of the drivers of how he chooses which entrepreneurs he wants to engage with is what he wants to learn about.

For example, he’s not very knowledgeable about Bitcoin and he is interested in learning about Bitcoin. He’s interested in entrepreneurs who are working on new opportunities in Bitcoin as a mechanism of understanding that trend.

Yes, investors do look to entrepreneurs to educate them and train them, which is what was driving my question

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Brian Jacobs of Emergence Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Brian Jacobs, Emergence Capital was recorded in October 2014. 

Brian Jacobs is General Partner, Emergence Capital, SaaS/Cloud domain experts boasting a fabulous portfolio, including solid exits like SuccessFactors, Yammer, and Veeva. He discusses his views on where cloud opportunities are likely to be at this point. While we’re in a mature market, he is still bullish on innovation.

Sramana Mitra: Silicon Valley seems like an incredibly arrogant place. Silicon Valley was actually afraid when the dot-com bubble had burst. You can actually feel the fear in the air. Against that backdrop, Emergence 

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ashu Garg of Foundation Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Ashu Garg, Foundation Capital was recorded in March 2016. 

Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital, outlines the top trends driving startups and venture capital from his firm’s perspective.

Sramana Mitra: What is your read of how the venture capital industry has evolved in the Silicon Valley over the last five years? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Charlie O’Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Charlie O’Donnell, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures was recorded in November 2017. 

Charlie O’Donnell, Partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, talks about his Seed investing activities and related industry trends.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by getting acquainted. Tell us about Brooklyn Bridge Ventures as well as yourself.

Charlie O’Donnell: Brooklyn Bridge Ventures is a seed fund based in Brooklyn, New York. It’s the first fund to be located in Brooklyn. I’ve spent the vast majority of my career in the venture capital asset class, which is actually pretty rare. Usually people >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Darshan Vyas of LOUD Capital (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: The issue that we are seeing is that a lot of companies are not ready for a $5 million to $10 million Series A. We need funds that can do $1 million to $3 million Series A. That’s only viable if the fund sizes are relatively small. The larger fund sizes cannot do $1 million to $3 million Series A.

Darshan Vyas: Correct. I can only speak for Columbus right now. We have a good grasp of the investors that are interested in Series A. What we’re lacking are the investors that play the part we do, which is the angel investment. There’s a lack of resources to help entrepreneurs get off the ground. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With David Blumberg of Blumberg Capital (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: I do want to finish by having you talk to us a little bit about what stage you invest in. You talked a lot about the segment and preference in B2B. Talk to us about stage as a concluding segment.

David Blumberg: We believe that there are many brilliant entrepreneurs all over the world. We are open. We are based in Silicon Valley but we have offices in New York and Tel Aviv. We’ve invested in companies all over the world. We’re open to you wherever you come from. We can help you with the networking and the ties in Silicon Valley. That’s our strength.

If you’re going for a global market, that’s important to you anyway. We invest in the early stage. Seed and Series A is our specialty. A >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Darshan Vyas of LOUD Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: It’s interesting to see that you guys are seeing AI in the midwest as well. It’s good to know that that’s a pervasive trend even in your part of the universe. From your fund’s point of view, what kind of ventures are you looking to invest in? What is your investment thesis and where do you really want to focus?

Darshan Vyas: We’re really interested in artificial intelligence. When we invest in companies, I try to identify companies where we can add value by incorporating our network into that company. If we can add value to that company, then we will make that investment.

Sramana Mitra: Help us understand where your network is so we can send those types of companies your way. >>>