Conor Holahan 11/22/21 Conor Holahan 11/22/21

The Power of Inflection Points

TCV is one of the largest growth equity firms in the world and has invested over $16B in public and private technology companies. We had the pleasure of speaking with David Zhang, a Partner at TCV, to discuss his career in technology investing. David has over a decade of experience in the global tech industry and he focuses on investments in fintech, digital media, and e-commerce, including investments in Airbnb, Brex, and Klarna. During our conversation, we cover the rationale for TCV’s crossover investing approach as well as the power of investing at pivotal moments and inflection points in a company’s journey. We also dive into why David made the jump into growth equity, what he looks for when making an investment, and advice for young professionals pursuing a career in technology investing.

Conor Holahan 11/14/21 Conor Holahan 11/14/21

Making the Leap

Conor and Alex chat with Cristina Riojas, co-founder of Sila, a tea brand focused on mindfulness and connection. We discuss starting a company as a college student, Cristina’s passion for tea, and the importance of making the most of a few key decisions in one’s life. Cristina also describes how she has learned to deal with failure during her entrepreneurial journy and her goals for Sila over the coming years.

Conor Holahan 11/8/21 Conor Holahan 11/8/21

Private Equity Secondaries

On this episode, we speak with Kevin Dunwoodie, a Partner in Pantheon’s Global Secondaries Investment Team. We discuss what the private equity secondaries market is, the value proposition for buyers and sellers, and the key drivers of returns for a secondaries fund. We also dive into the way in which secondaries markets have reacted to recent financial crises and the evolution of GP-led secondary transactions.

Conor Holahan 10/25/21 Conor Holahan 10/25/21

Investing in Automation & AI

In this episode, we are joined by Jason Schoettler, co-founder and managing partner of Calibrate Ventures. Jason and his investing partner have funded companies like Dollar Shave Club (acquired by Unilever), Soft Robotics, Ring, SolarCity, and Chegg. In our conversation, we discuss his decision to start his own venture firm, synthetic data, the challenges robotics companies face over SaaS businesses, and what startups need to achieve to secure a Series A investment after seed capital.

Guest User 10/12/21 Guest User 10/12/21

Private Investing - From the Top

In this episode we speak with Peter Bell. Peter is the Chairman at Amity Ventures, a VC and PE firm investing in "category defining" technology companies, and the CEO of Epiphany Technology Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC targeting technology companies. Peter's career began in entrepreneurship and has led him to private investing. Peter has a unique view on making private investments and his firm invests across various stages from early stage VC to late stage SPAC investments and buyouts. We discuss Peter's decision-making process, fund strategy and investment strategy, and SPAC deal structure and management. Listen to learn from his stories.

Guest User 9/23/21 Guest User 9/23/21

EdTech & Micro-Internships

We chat with Jeff Moss, Founder and CEO of Parker Dewey, an education technology marketplace focused on connecting students to micro-internships with reputable companies. We discuss the value of micro-internships, how Jeff transitioned from being a director at Susquehanna Growth Equity, and how Parker Dewey overcame the challenges of building out a two-sided marketplace. Jeff has amazing wisdom on how to develop your career, don't miss this one!

Conor Holahan 9/20/21 Conor Holahan 9/20/21

Exploring the Blockchain

Conor and Alex chat with Joel Neidig, CEO and co-founder of Simba Chain, a blockchain-as-a-service platform that makes it easy to deploy this exciting new technology across multiple blockchains and data platforms. This conversation defines the blockchain, evaluates potential use cases, and breaks down where Simba Chain fits into the current ecosystem. We specifically dive into smart contracts and NFTs as well as how to selling a product and educate customers in a new industry.

Conor Holahan 9/15/21 Conor Holahan 9/15/21

Jumping into the Deep End

Jere Doyle is a Boston College professor and proven entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and angel investor across many different companies and funds over the course of his illustrious career. In our conversation, Jere gives his take on the role of innate ability and learning in becoming a successful entrepreneur and describes how entrepreneurship is “the pursuit of opportunity with total disregard for current resources.” Drawing from Jere’s company-building experience, we discuss when the best time is to take the leap into entrepreneurship and the challenging evolution of the CEO role as a company scales. We wrap up the episode with a dive into his top investment themes, including marketplaces, SaaS, Big Data, and AI.

Guest User 9/9/21 Guest User 9/9/21

Growing Money - Notre Dame’s Way

We are joined by Scott Malpass who served as the Chief Investment Officer for Notre Dame’s endowment, growing it from $400 million to over $12 billion. We discuss the strategies and practices that allowed Notre Dame’s investment office to achieve amazing long-term returns on its endowed capital. Specifically, Scott gave his thoughts on asset managers and how to find good ones, the University’s role in private investing, and acting as a co-investor for world-class private equity firms. Scott’s wisdom on long-term investing is unparalleled, don’t miss this episode.

Conor Holahan 9/7/21 Conor Holahan 9/7/21

The Bank Behind the Innovation Economy

We are joined by Brian Plamondon, a member of the Healthcare Corporate Venture Relationships team at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). With over 50% of venture-backed life sciences and tech companies in the US banking with them, SVB is engrained within the Silicon Valley ecosystem. During our conversation with Brian, we cover how SVB helped its clients during the pandemic and COVID’s impact on the venture and M&A space. Additionally, we discuss growing verticals within the healthcare industry, increased capital allocation to megafunds and solo GPs, and the state of the venture capital industry abroad.

Guest User 9/2/21 Guest User 9/2/21

Accelerating Solar Energy with Software

Johannes Burgard, MD and Founder at the solar energy software company Solytic, joins us for this episode discussing his path as a founder. Johannes explains Solytic’s product and go-to-market strategy that has allowed the company to raise millions in capital and operate in over 60 countries in just 4 years after its founding, and shares his advice from founding his company. As a trained engineer, Johannes is able to provide insight into what it’s like founding a company from a non-business background, and tells the hardships of starting his company.

Conor Holahan 8/31/21 Conor Holahan 8/31/21

Funding Female Founders in FinTech

Elizabeth Davis, a venture investor at Anthemis on their Female Innovators Lab team, helps us kick off the fall semester with an exciting discussion on early-stage investing and the rise of financial technology companies. In addition to diving into key sub-verticals and investment themes within fintech, we focus on how Elizabeth is working to combat inequities that women face in the venture funding space. Only about 2% of all venture funding goes towards women and Elizabeth wants to change that by helping female founders on the front lines.

Conor Holahan 5/11/21 Conor Holahan 5/11/21

Sink or Swim

Justin Schneider, CEO and founder of the LA-based men's fashion brand Wolf & Shepard, joins the show to discuss his journey from track star to shoe designer. Justin talks about the adaptability and willingness to face the unknown in stride that is necessary to become a founder. We also touch on Justin’s industrial design background, work with Reebok, Adidas, and New Balance, as well as some of his big successes, including seeing the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wear his shoes.

Guest User 5/4/21 Guest User 5/4/21

Intro to Venture Studios

Mike Fitzgerald, co-founder and partner at High Alpha, a venture studio in Indianapolis, comes on the show to discuss the strategy and operations of venture studios. Mike’s background in software, sales, and entrepreneurship guides our conversation on starting companies at venture studios, the attractiveness of B2B SaaS, and guiding exits and innovation through large corporations. This episode also provides insight into Mike’s experience founding a venture studio and his advice from that process.

Conor Holahan 4/29/21 Conor Holahan 4/29/21

Corporate Culture & Leadership

Tom Mendoza, former President and SVP of Sales at NetApp and benefactor of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, joins the show to discuss his philosophy behind goal setting and establishing a clear vision for an organization. Drawing on his experience at NetApp, Tom also outlines how he developed a strong corporate culture at NetApp and how others can do the same at fast-growing tech companies.

Conor Holahan 4/27/21 Conor Holahan 4/27/21

Navigating Y Combinator

Conor McCarter is the co-founder of Prequel, which helps companies set up and manage their data stacks so they can focus on what matters: getting insights to drive their businesses. We talk about with Conor about pursuing a dual engineering masters degree and MBA at Harvard and subsequently deciding to jump in full time to work on his startup. We also focus on Conor’s experience with Y Combinator, which is the premier American seed money startup accelerator. Topics include applying and interviewing for YC, maximizing time given the unstructured nature of the program, the infamous Demo Day, and the state of Prequel after going through the accelerator.

Guest User 4/22/21 Guest User 4/22/21

Supporting High Growth Companies

Conor and Alex chat with Mike Anello, co-founder and managing director at M33 Growth, a growth equity firm in Boston MA. On this episode we discuss key aspects of providing value to Growth Equity portfolio companies. Mike touches on his experience in his role as a managing director, creating operations teams, and pitching a company's value to its potential customers.

Guest User 4/15/21 Guest User 4/15/21

How do Companies Prepare for the Future?

Conor and Alex chat with Mike Bechtel, Chief Futurist at Deloitte. Michael discusses what it means to be a futurist, how to analyze trends that are defining future operating systems and opportunities, and how companies can prepare workforces for changing technological environments. Get a glimpse into his thought process and learn about how you can prepare yourself for careers in large corporations.

Conor Holahan 4/13/21 Conor Holahan 4/13/21

Healthcare VC Investing

With over 20 years of experience in venture capital and degrees from MIT and Harvard, Dr. Jeff Himawan, Managing Director at EW Healthcare Partners, joins the show to discuss the role of venture capital in research-intensive pharmaceutical startups. Jeff outlines the impact that longer holding periods have on healthcare venture firms’ relationships with LPs as well as the characteristics needed to raise new financing rounds for pharma startups. Other topics include the impact of the pandemic on healthcare investing, the entrance of big tech into healthcare, and the lack of innovation by big pharma.

Conor Holahan 4/6/21 Conor Holahan 4/6/21

Cloud Technology and Big Data

Conor and Alex chat with Rory Conway, Principal Product Manager at Walmart Global Tech. We discuss the necessity of cloud software solutions, the value of data in business operations, and the threat of this data with respect to cyber security. Rory also provides insight on how to position yourself for success in tech.

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