Just Getting Started: Recent Episodes
FUSE VC
FUSE is an early-stage venture firm based in the Pacific Northwest, and just like the founders in our portfolio - we are just getting started. We believe that founders deserve more: more urgency, more community, more expertise, more reliability - more of everything. And we aim to deliver.
Join us to hear the founding stories of companies in the FUSE family, experiences from visionary operators and executives in the Pacific Northwest, as well as startup journey wisdom and best practices from the FUSE team.
Let's get started!
Today you’ll hear from David Tepper, Co-founder and CEO of Pay-I. Join us as we discuss David’s twenty-year journey driving innovation at Microsoft, and his discovery of how to drive a new billing solution for Gen AI, prompt-based apps. Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today you’ll hear from Nate Hamet, Co-founder and CEO of Quindar. Join us as we discuss Nate’s path to discovering his passion for SpaceTech, meeting his five co-founders, and how Quindar is becoming mission-critical – pun intended – for satellite operators and beneficiaries of their data like you and me.
Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today you’ll hear from Doug Logan, Co-founder and CEO of Aerial. Join us to learn about Doug’s prior experience serving startups and midmarket M&A at K&L gates, and how the pain from masses of clerical work inspired his vision for Aerial. Speeding up financing rounds and creating legal cost savings for founders is what inspired his mission from the start.
Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today's Operational Excellence episode features Mike Bignold, the Founder and CEO of CostCertified.
In this conversation he sits down with FUSE GP Brendan Wales to share about how he leverages a numbers-driven approach to operating, and how it's helped CostCertified to grow by more than 10x in the last two years.
Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode we sit down with Leif Magnuson, Co-Founder and CEO of TipHaus .
In this conversation he is joined by FUSE GP Brendan Wales to discuss some of his creative tactics for operating leanly and efficiently -- and how it's helped TipHaus 10x its revenue in two years.
Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today's Operational Excellence episode features FUSE Operating Partner John Connors. John has been a partner at Ignition (FUSE’s Alma Matter) since 2005 and also served as CFO and CIO of Microsoft. Throughout his career he has served on many public, private, non-profit and civic boards, some notably including Nike and Splunk.
In this conversations he sits down with FUSE GP Cameron Borumand to share about how to build and run world class boards. John has seen it all when it comes to boards and offers some sage advice about what to do and what NOT to do - especially in the wake of some recent notable public company board failures.
It's going to be a great discussion. Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today I am joined by Jackson and Jamieson Fregeau, the founders of Quandri. Join us as we discuss how these two brothers teamed up to build an RPA platform to automate workflows for insurance brokerages. Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today's Operational Excellence episode features Paul Mikesell, the current Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics. Prior to Carbon, Paul co-founded Isilon Systems, which went public in 2006 and was subsequently acquired by EMC for $2.25 billion in 2010. Paul also served as Director of Infrastructure Engineering at Uber, where he grew the team and opened the company’s engineering office in Seattle.
Paul knows what it takes to build consequential businesses.
In this conversation he sits down with FUSE GP Cameron Borumand to share about how to effectively hire, motivate and lead teams. He will also walk through his employee scoring system that is a great method for driving clear performance conversations.
Let's get started!
Today you’ll hear from Benji Barash, Co-founder and CEO of Roboto. Join us to learn about Benji’s experience helping run the drone program at Amazon – and how it paved the way for starting Roboto. This business is transforming the way engineers can access and analyze multimodal hardware and sensor data.
Let's get started!
This month's Operational Excellence webinar features FUSE LP and Attentive VP of Sales, Gavin Hewitt.
In this discussion, Gavin and FUSE's Brendan Wales discuss sales best practices. Topics include: how to best serve big and small ACVs, how to build comp and capacity models for SDRs/AEs, how to drive top rep performance, and more.
With Gavin's experience leading teams + selling a diversified set of products and services his guidance is timely and relevant.
Let's get started!
Today I am sitting down with Leif Magnuson, Co-founder and CEO of TipHaus. Tune in as Leif shares about his journey in the restaurant industry and some key insights into the ever increasing importance of proper tip management strategies. He’ll also share why major restaurant brands are turning to TipHaus to improve employee retention and satisfaction. Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today FUSE GP Brendan Wales sits down with Ryan Fink, Co-founder and CEO of Digs. Ryan has started 3 companies before the age of 35. He scaled his first two to successful exits – and has a big vision for company number 3: Digs. In today’s conversation he shares key insights from his journey about how to grow and lead teams effectively – and what it takes to build great businesses.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today you'll hear from Vikram Chalana, Co-founder and CEO of Pictory. Join us as we discuss the making of the product, the generative AI landscape, and why Pictory can turn anyone into a video editing pro in minutes.
Let's get started!
Today we continue with our Operational Excellence series. This week's episode features a conversation between FUSE GP Brendan Wales and FUSE Operating Partner Bobby Wagner.
As an All-Pro linebacker Bobby continues to be at the top of his game, having recently completed his 11th NFL season. He leads with humility yet continues to perform at the highest level. In this session, Bobby will share insights on how to sustain high performance - while under immense competitive pressure - and how to inspire others around you to do the same. Topics include:
- Mental frameworks around how to adjust to the wins and losses that inevitably come
- Sustaining a healthy lifestyle even when it is easy to slip (Bobby works his butt off in the gym, but I have never seen him once eat unhealthy at the office!)
- Balancing family commitments while being pulled in many different directions
Enjoy the conversation!
Today you’ll hear from David Rhodus, Founder and CEO of SUMI. Join us as David discusses his prior experiences in blockchain, including his time at Ethereum, what led to him create SUMI, and how the product is revolutionizing storage. Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Welcome back! Today we're are wrapping up this portion of the Operational Excellence series focused on the hiring journey. I'm joined once again by FUSE Operating Partner Satbir Khanuja, to talk about hiring an early stage VP of People and Culture. With learnings gathered throughout his time as a startup leader, advisor, and mega cap operator, he's truly seen it all. Join us as he shares insights on what to look for, and how the paradigm for this role has changed. It's going to be a great discussion. Let's get started!
If you missed prior episodes, be sure to check them out on Spotify, Apple, and right on the FUSE website. Also, stay tuned for the next portion of this series coming soon, which will focus on how to scale your business efficiently and how to structure and run effective boards.
Today, we continue with our Operational Excellence series focused on the hiring journey. I'm joined again by FUSE Operating Partner, John Connors, to talk about hiring an early-stage technical leader. With learnings gathered throughout his time as a startup investor and advisor, and his past life as an operator, namely his time at Microsoft, he's going to have some tremendous wisdom to share.
Let's get started!
Today we're continuing with our Operational Excellence series focused on the hiring journey. I'm once again joined by FUSE operating partner Satbir Khanuja to talk about hiring an early stage marketing leader. With learnings gathered throughout his time as an early marketing leader at Amazon as well as his own time as a startup founder and operator, he's going to have a lot of great insights to share.
Let's get started!
Today, we continue on with our Operational Excellence Series focused on the hiring journey. This is our third episode and I'm back with Fuse operating partner, John Connors, to talk about hiring an early-stage VP of Finance. This role is personally relevant to John as he served a significant finance leadership tenure during his time as CFO at Microsoft. He has seen and experienced firsthand what it takes to build the right team and has since been able to support dozens of startups along their hiring journeys. Today, he is going to share some of that story and wisdom with us. Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This is the second episode in our new Executive Hiring Series. Join me as I sit down with Fuse operating partner, Satbir Khanuja to talk about hiring an early stage product leader. Satbir has decades of experience as an operator, founder and investor. He's seen and experienced firsthand what it takes to build the right team at the get go to take a company to the top. Today he's going to share some of his insights with us. Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today you'll hear from Ryan Soskin, Co-Founder and CEO of GoodShip. Join us to learn about how Ryan's decade of experience at companies such as Convoy and Coyote Logistics paved the way for starting GoodShip - and learn about how the business is transforming the way shippers and freight carriers operate.
Let's get started!
Needl is solving the age old issue of internal search. In this episode I sit down with Max Keenan, Co-founder and CEO to discuss the recent advances allowing for better internal search, the best Pizza restaurant in Seattle, and how Needl is super charging the way we can find information and digital files across all of our internal systems and cloud tools.
Let's get started!
This is the first episode in our new Executive Hiring Series. Building a high performing leadership team is critical to success. It is imperative to do the proper upfront work when exploring and screen candidates, but as a founder, knowing what to look for based on your company's stage and how to vet the right person can be a daunting task. In this interview series, we aim to help by providing insights on how to ensure you are properly looking for and finding the best possible candidate for your company.
Join us and FUSE operating partner, John Connors, as we discuss hiring an early-stage VP of Sales. John has had over 30 years of experience as an operator and investor, and has come alongside dozens of companies to help them build out their teams.
Today, he's going to share some of that wisdom with all of us.
Let's get started!
Meet David Wexler, founder and CEO of PortX. Join us as we discuss the entrepreneurship journey and how this company is revolutionizing the way community financial institutions can deliver enhanced customer experiences through seamless integrations with their banking cores.
Let's get started!
Meet Rich Rogers and Akhila Tadinada, founders of Xemelgo. Join us as we discuss the evolution of manufacturing and the shift towards industry 4.0 and how Xemelgo is completely transforming factory operations and supply chains.
Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today, you'll hear from a Emiliano Berenbaum. He's one of the founders and the CEO of Trustle. Join us as we fire through a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and how he has assembled a killer team to build the next generation Okta.
Let's get started!
Next is Joshua McKenty, Co-Founder and CEO of Delving. Join us as we discuss the discovery process and entrepreneurship journey - and how Delving is going to transform and supercharge the way we engage with Excel and every other spreadsheet tool.
Let's get started!
Aatish Mandelecha is the Founder and CEO of Strac. Aatish and his team collectively spent 30+ years at Amazon in Payments building various products, widgets, APIs & security. Most recently, they built their payment secure zone that stored & transacted billions of cards.
Join us as we fire through a few topics about the business and entrepreneurial journey - and how Strac is changing the game in the personal data security market for businesses and their customers alike.
Let's get started!
Today you'll hear from Ryan Fuller, Co-founder and CEO of Round.Join us as we discuss Ryan’s entrepreneurship journey and leadership perspectives - and how Round is creating a community that will shape the Tech world and it’s leaders for the better.
Let’s get started!
Today, you'll hear from Steve Davis, CEO of Operto. Join him and FUSE partner, Brendan Wales as they fire through a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and how Operto is shifting the paradigm of short term rental check-in and guest experiences.
Let's get started!
Today you'll hear from Anand Subbaraj, Co-founder and CEO of Zuper. Join us as we discuss how the business has been growing, what it means to be truly customer obsessed, and how Zuper is "uberizing" field service operations.
Let's get started!
Today you'll hear from Vikram Chalana, Co-founder and CEO of Pictory. Join us as we discuss the making of the product, the team's journey thus far, and why Pictory can turn anyone into a video editing pro in minutes.
Let's get started!
Serge Salager is the CEO of Visualping, one of Fuse's first portfolio companies. We will quickly fire through a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and how Visualping helps users leverage the internet as their own personal database.
Let's get started!
Sean Merat is a repeat entrepreneur and current Co-founder and CEO of Owl. Owl was Fuse's very first portfolio company and has been growing quickly since. Join us as we fire through a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and how Owl is changing the game in insurance fraud detection.
Let's get started!
Paul Mikesell is a seasoned entrepreneur and current Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics. Prior to Carbon, Paul was the Founder and Director of Engineering at Isilon Systems, which is one of the PNW region's biggest tech success stories. Join us as we discuss Paul's entrepreneurship journey, key learnings along the way, and of course, why killing weeds using computer vision and laser beams is going to revolutionize the way we grow our food.
Let's get started!
Today you'll hear from Mike Bignold, Co-founder and CEO of CostCertified. Join us as we discuss the business, how it's been going and growing, and how CostCertified is making buying residential construction services as easy as buying on Amazon.
Let's get started!
Matt Hocking is the Co-Founder and CEO of WellSaid Labs. Join us as we discuss a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and how their AI voice product is the future of voice content creation.
Let's get started!
Today you'll hear from Kevin Lin, Founder and CEO of Dendron. Join us as we fire through a few topics about the business, the team's journey this far, and how Kevin - after having taken over 20,000 notes during his career as a developer - decided it was time to build a new method of knowledge management.
Let's get started!
JT Garwood is the Co-Founder and CEO of bttn, a fast growing B2B medical supply marketplace. Today we'll discuss a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and why the medical supply industry is ripe for disruption.
Let's get started!
Jon Debonis is the Co-founder and CEO of Trustle. Prior to founding Trustle he was the former Head of Security / CISO at Blend. Join us as we cover a few topics about the business and how they've assembled a killer team to build the next generation Okta.
Let's get started!
Today you'll hear from Johannes Crepon, Co-founder and CEO of PDM Automotive. Join us as we fire through a few topics about the business, how it's been going and growing, and how PDM is changing the game in the automotive aftermarket.
Let's get started!
Johannes Ariens is the Founder and CEO of Route Line. Prior to founding Route Line, Johannes started LOGE, a Pacific Northwest-based hotel and adventure business. Join us as he shares about the entrepreneurial journey, the discovery process that led him to starting Route Line and his vision to increase our accessibility to the great outdoors through RVs.
Let's get started!
Today you'll be hearing from Bryce Bennett, Co-founder and CEO of Solo. Join us as Bryce discusses his prior experience at Uber and Convoy, how it led to building Solo, and why their product will be key in empowering the future of the gig workforce.
Let's get started!
Adriaan Van Wyk is a seasoned entrepreneur and current Co-founder and CEO of Jigx. Prior to Jigx, Adriaan co-founded K2 Software, a global business headquartered right here in Seattle. Join us as Adriaan discusses the startup journey, the importance of team culture along the way, and how Jigx will shift the way businesses operate using their mobile devices.
Let's get started!