The Aggregate: Recent Episodes
Brad Zapp and Chris Hjelm
The Aggregate, hosted by Connetic Ventures, is a project based on the founder's journey and our learnings from StartupDNA. We interview Connetic portfolio founders and explore their entrepreneurial journey with their current company and prior endeavors. Brad Zapp and Chris Hjelm then dive deep into startupDNA profiles and pull in snippets from prior founder episodes to help contextualize different types of founder personalities. Enjoy!
Derek is Co-Founder / CEO of Corl and Co-Founder / CTO of Railz.
On this episode, Chris Hjelm and Derek Manuge discuss:
- His background before launching
- How he ended up launching his second venture-backed startup while running his first
- How he manages to run two companies
- The future of DeFi and Crypto
- What company he'd launch if he had any more time
- What's next
Derek is a Strategist in our TeamPrint Assessment. Her individual traits are:
- Leadership: Champion
- Social: Quiet
- Patience: Restless
- Formality: Exact
Enjoy!
Jennifer Williams is Co-Founder and CEO of Cuddle Clones.
On this episode, Brad Zapp and Jennifer Williams discuss:
- Her life before startups and what made her make the jump
- Why she decided to launch a business making clones of people's animals
- Running a multi-million dollar startup with manufacturing operations overseas
- Raising venture money in Kentucky
- What's next
Jennifer is a Strategist in our TeamPrint Assessment. Her individual traits are:
- Leadership: Champion
- Social: Cordial
- Patience: Purposeful
- Formality: Precise
Enjoy!
On today's episode, Brad Zapp and Chris Hjelm dive into the Problem Solver Profile.
What makes Problem Solvers unique? What roles and tasks do they excel in within organizations? When you should think about hiring one?
We will also layer in quotes from our conversations with fellow Problem Solvers: Gary Darna and Elise Tresley.
A few notes on The Disruptor:
- The most reserved profile of the Enterpriser vector
- Directive, factual, outspoken, and frank
- Hesitant to delegate major authority or responsibility
- Values own judgments more than others
- Can appear tough-minded and directive
If you want to learn more about how to use TeamPrint within your organization please reach out to Brad (zapp@connetic.ventures) or Chris (hjelm@connetic.ventures).
Enjoy!
Gary had so much knowledge to impart, we had him back for round two. On this episode, Gary Darna talks about his career after CompleteSet.
Some of the topics covered are:
- What is a soft landing? And why are they important for entrepreneurs
- Why do big corporations struggle to innovate and retain entrepreneurial talent
- Why entrepreneurs don't make great corporate employees
- How to develop a more successful entrepreneurial ecosystem
- His future as an entrepreneur
Enjoy!
Elise Tresley is Co-Founder and CEO of Realm Foods. Elise is a multi-time founder across software and CPG industries.
On this episode Chris Hjelm and Elise Tresley discuss:
- Her life before startups and what made her make the jump
- What's required to building a successful startup
- How she went from exiting a software startup to launching a CPG company (and which one she likes better)
- What it's like being a female founder
- How she thinks about building high-performing teams
- What she would be doing if she wasn't running Realm Foods
Enjoy!
On today's episode, Brad Zapp and Chris Hjelm dive into the Disruptor Profile.
What makes disruptors unique? What roles and tasks do they excel in within organizations? When you should think about hiring one?
We will also layer in quotes from our conversations with fellow Disruptors: Brad Zapp and Gavi Begtrup.
A few notes on The Disruptor:
- The most proactive profile of the Enterpriser vector
- Delegates authority and details somewhat freely
- Risk-taker, responds positively to pressure
- Struggles to adhere to structure or direction
- Can be tough-minded and authoritative
If you want to learn more about how to use TeamPrint within your organization please reach out to Brad (zapp@connetic.ventures) or Chris (hjelm@connetic.ventures).
Enjoy!
Gavi Begtrup is a scientist, multi-time startup founder, and candidate for the Mayor of Cincinnati.
On this episode Brad Zapp and Gavi Begtrup discuss:
- How he began his entrepreneurial journey
- The need to be driven by passion and purpose
- Why failure as an outcome is much different than failure as a person
- What thing came naturally for him as an early-stage CEO
- How he plans to change the City of Cincinnati
Enjoy!
Hosted by Connetic Ventures, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Brad Zapp and Killer Creamery COO, Matt Price discuss:
- Brad’s journey into VC
- Introducing Wendal, the AI that is money balling founders
- The disruption of VC from overlooked markets
- Imposter syndrome
- Leading with the “risk” when pitching VC’s
- Connetic Ventures true value add on your cap table
Enjoy!
On today's episode, Brad Zapp and Chris Hjelm dive into the Accelerator Profile. We will also layer in quotes from our conversations with fellow Accelerators: Alex Burkhart and Blake Allsmith.
A few notes on The Accelerator:
- The fastest-moving profile of the Enterpriser vector
- Willing to build employees, not afraid of successors
- Thrive on being challenged
- Blunt, no-nonsense, and persuasive
- Can be hard-headed and doesn't like delays
Enjoy!
On this episode, Brad and Chris introduce StartupDNA and how the gut-driven VC model led them to build it.
TeamPrint is the world's first behavioral assessment that analyzes and creates high-performing teams. It is also the first assessment to have been validated for fairness across race, age, and gender.
Dan Healy is the CEO of Pickup, PickUp is a fan opinion platform that makes content interactive by letting publishers embed contextual and shareable editorial. Prior to Pickup Dan was the COO of Prolific Interactive which was sold to WeWork in 2019.
On this episode Chris and Dan discuss:
- The future of sports betting
- How the future of sports content will be driven by fans
- What is was like being acquired by WeWork
- Dan's principles and best practices for building teams and company culture
- The benefits of leveraging personality assessments to build teams
- Blockchain and digital workhorse ownership
Enjoy!
Blake Allsmith is Co-Founder and CEO of Jumpdocs.com. Blake is an integral part of the Cincinnati entrepreneurial ecosystem and still leans in to help local startups raise capital and enter hypergrowth. Prior to Jumpdocs, Blake was CEO of Cladwell, a Connetic portfolio company that was sold in 2019.
Brad and Blake discuss:
- What it's like building a family while being an entrepreneur
- Why fatherhood and entrepreneurship are similar
- The benefit of select Accelerators
- Why he loves fundraising (and doesn't love selling)
- The mindset differences between building a $10M and $1B business
- How to evaluate and determine the type of investors to bring on
Enjoy!
Alex Burkhart is an Accelerator and founder of multiple companies included Tixers, a Connetic portfolio company, that was sold in 2015. Alex is the definition of a serial entrepreneur and has very insightful information for any entrepreneur. Currently, Alex is the founder and CEO of Prime Prospects and Zooky, as well as an Adjunct Professor at University of Cincinnati.
Brad and Alex discuss:
- What it's like being an Accelerator CEO
- The real differences between big cos and startup
- The soft landing of a corporate job after running a startup
- How to fake it until you make it
- Why selling his company was the hardest part of all
- How Alex uses technology to build high performing teams
Enjoy!