Tank Talks: Recent Episodes
Matt Cohen
Weekly insightful conversations with leaders in the startup ecosystem discussing the truth about investing, building and running startups. Join your host, Matt Cohen, Founder & Manager Partner at Ripple Ventures, as he interviews CEOs, Venture Capitalist & Founders from around the world.
Welcome to the Tank!
On today's Talk, we ask Villi about his journey into technology investing after starting his career at HP on the corporate development side and then moving over to Salesforce during the last crisis. We ask Villis' about his time as Vice President of Corp Dev at Salesforce Ventures and about some of the amazing startups he invested in like BOX, Hubspot, Zapier and countless others.
We dig into Villi’s experience moving from corporate venture into traditional venture roles as a Partner at August Capital where he made his investment into unicorn startup Gitlab as the Series B lead and his reasons behind that investment even after 100 Venture firms already passed on them.
Next, we ask Villi to explain why Two Sigma Ventures was the best fit for him for his next journey in venture and how their quantitative approach to investing on the public side has shaped their investment strategy on the venture side. Finally, we ask Villi what he looks for when investing in emerging areas and how he manages timing risk and avoids being too early into an emerging market. This tank talk really helps you think about the ways in which venture investors are forced to think outside the box and into the future sometimes decades ahead in order to place bets on startups at the early stage today and how founders should approach these kinds of investors.
Books Mentioned In The Show:
- The Brothers Karamazov
- The Death of Ivan Ilych
Villi’s words of inspiration - “Have a truthful life, do things that are meaningful and do things that matter.”
On today's Talk, we ask Elizabeth about her journey in leaving Google during the last crisis to start Launchbit, an ad-tech platform that she eventually sold to BuySellAds and how she eventually made her way onto the investment side with 500 Startups. We dig into Elizabeth's time in running the 500 Startups Mountain View office and how she was able to select founders to back after reviewing over 20,000 pitch decks. Next, we discuss the reason she started Hustle fund with her partner Eric and what their mission is for the next 25 years. Finally, we ask Elizabeth to explain what hustle means to her as an early-stage investor and how she assesses hustle when meeting founders for the first and sometimes only time before deciding on backing them with a $25,000 investment.
This tank talk really helps you think about what characteristics and qualities to look for when making early-stage investments.
Books Mentioned In The Show:
- The Lean Startup
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things
- Predictable Revenue
Elizabeth’s words of inspiration - “Building a startup is tough, so make sure you dig deep and decide why you want to do it, besides the money, because it can really be your north star when moving through difficult times”
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Darrell Heaps, Founder & CEO @ Q4 Inc. On today's Talk, we ask Darrell about his journey as an Elite Mogul Skier on the World Cup stage and his transition to Founding and Leading Q4 Inc. for the last 15 years. We discuss the bumps and bruises Darrell experienced both on the mountain and in the boardroom. We also dig into Darrell's ability to overcome adversity as an Elite Athlete and how his competitive nature in sports has helped him build Q4 into a market leader in the investor relations space while raising over $90M in financing and completing 5 acquisitions. Finally, we discuss Darrell's plans for Q4 in the future and how his team's culture has played a vital role in managing these uncertain times during COVID. This tank talk really makes you appreciate the hustle, determination and no bullshit attitude Darrell brings to his company each and every day.
Now please welcome today's guest to the Tank, Darrell Heaps Books Mentioned In The Show: - Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice - That Will Never Work - the Story of Netflix - American King Pin - the story of Silk Road - Billion Dollar Whale Darrell’s words of inspiration - “Don’t believe your own bull-shit!”
On today's Talk, we ask Tony about his humble beginnings of growing up in a rural farming community in Indiana and how he made his way around the world living in places like Paris, New Delhi & Jakarta. We dig into Tony’s experiences of Co-Founding two startups that both exited to AOL and what he looks for when backing founders. We also ask Tony why he backed specialty coffee brand Blue Bottle Coffee and how it became a billion exit for the fund. We also ask Tony about his passion for Community based investment like Wordpress, Voiceflow & Zero Fasting and the experience in watching Wordpress grow to power over 30% of all internet websites. Finally, we ask Tony about his incredible 16-year career at True Ventures and the firm's people-first approach to investing.
This tank talk really makes you appreciate the empathy, passion and patience Tony brings to his investments and everyday life.
Books Mentioned In The Show: - The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz - Bird Lives! - Shackleton's Boat Journey
Tony’s words of inspiration - “Everyone should take a step back from their day jobs and make sure you are taking a more holistic experience as a human and figuring where you side on the societal and economic issues facing our world today and take a stand.”
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Mimi Lam & Drummond Munro, Co-Founders of Superette, Canada’s Most Awarded Cannabis Startup.
On today's Talk, we ask Mimi & Drum about how they originally entered the Cannabis industry before teaming up to start Superette. We dig into how they came up with the unique concept for Superette’s brand and how they differentiated themselves in the already crowded retail cannabis space. We discuss their ability to recruit passionate and talented employees who are not necessarily interested in the cannabis industry and what that has done for company culture. Finally, we ask them how staying private has helped them navigate the volatile cannabis markets and if they have any plans to go public soon. This tank talk really makes you appreciate the passion and commitment Mimi and Drum have towards building the most loved and respected cannabis company in the world.
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Devon Wright, General Manager at Yelp! In San Francisco & former Co-Founder & CEO of Turnstyle Solutions.
This talk is a special one for me personally as I owe a lot of my entrepreneurial and venture investing career to Devon. Not only was Devon the first person I wrote my initial angel check into back in 2012 to help start Turnstyle before it was even a company, but Devon has become one of my closest friends and supporters to push me to leave my cushy job on wall st and start my own venture fund. I could go on and on, but you will hear more about that and more on the show.
On today's Talk, we ask Devon about the humble beginnings of starting Turnstyle in 2012 along with my initial capital investment that in hindsight was truly based on a ridiculous idea. We also dig into what it was like trying to find a Venture Fund let alone one to pitch to in Toronto during the first few years of the company. We learn how Devon found a way to beg, borrow and hustle his way through the early years at Turnstyle with limited capital and supporters. Finally, we dig into Devon's journey building Turnstyle into a profitable 40 person company with some amazing talent around him even after all the VC funds turned him down and why he decided to eventually sell to Yelp in 2017. Devon's entrepreneurial journey is one of hustle, persistence and the desire to prove others wrong in the face of adversity.
Books Mentioned In The Show: - Loonshots - How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars - by Safi Bahcall
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Brick by Brick - How Lego Rewrote The Rules Of Innovation - By David C. Robertson
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The Perfect Store - Ebay’s Story - By Adam Cohen
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Teams of Teams - New Rules of Engagement for Complex Worlds - By Gen. Stanley McChrystal
Devon’s words of Inspiration “Be fair and be generous to everyone on your team when it comes to equity. It is really easy to get sucked into the capital side of your balance sheet.But don’t forget your role as an employee. And how important those people are to your success every day. Do what you can to give your employees ownership of the company. To make sure they win from the upside of your success. We have a lot of problems today in society and it all stems from the fact that, as the country grows, too many people are cut out from growing"
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Tony van Marken, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of First Ascent Ventures.
Tony is not only a successful businessman and venture capitalist but has an extremely accomplished mountaineering career having become the first South African to climb all Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each of the world’s seven continents.
On today's Talk, we ask Tony about his experience climbing Mount Everest in 2005 and his battle with the mountain, poor health and the worst weather seen on Everest for decades and his final steps to the summit on June 2, 2005. We also talk about his own personal business and other expedition experiences and the lessons learned that he has applied in building and investing in startups. This tank talk sure was a cliffhanger!
Now please welcome today's guest to the Tank, Tony Van Marken.
Books Mentioned In The Show:
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Annapurna Paperback - by Maurice Herzog
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Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest Paperback – by Jamling T. Norgay
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Into Thin Air - by Jon Krakauer
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Seven Summits - by Dick Bass, Frank Wells & Rick Ridgeway
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High Altitude Leadership - by Chris Warner & Don Schmincke
Tony’s words of Inspiration "If you dream of doing something, stop dreaming, get out and make it happen" by Sir Chris Bonington
You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest John Ruffolo, Founder & former CEO of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder & Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators
John is well known around the VC and Tech ecosystem for starting the Ontario Municipal Workers Pension Funds Venture arm in 2011. John has been instrumental in helping develop some of Canada’s biggest tech companies and was an early investor in some of the biggest exits in Canadian tech. Johns portfolio includes companies such as Hootsuite, Hopper, PasswordBox (which sold to Intel), Shopify (which IPOd 2015), Wave (which sold to H&R Block) and countless others.
On today's Talk, we ask John about his views on Venture and Growth Capital and how investors should be thinking about valuations during the crisis. We also talk to John about his views on the Canadian tech landscape and how founders should be thinking about building world class companies for the next decade.
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Michael Hyatt, Co-Founder of Hyatt Family Office
Michael is well known in the Canadian tech ecosystem as a serial entrepreneur turned angel investor and is regularly seen on TV providing his advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. Before Michael started his first company, he was President & CEO at Dyadem which sold to IHS a US public company in 2011. Michael went on to co-found BlueCat Networks with his brother and eventually sold the business to private equity firm Madison Dearborn for a reported $400mm in 2017.
On today's Talk, we ask Michael about his family office and their focus on wealth preservation vs wealth creation during the crisis. We also talk to Michael about his operator first approach to investing and what he looks for when backing early-stage founders or fund managers.
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Houman Haghighi, Partner at Menlo Ventures.
Houman has spent the last decade of his career investing and building startups. Prior to joining Menlo, Houman was the Director and Head of Business Development at Qualcomm Ventures for over 7 years and was a Senior Product Manager and engineer at Qualcomm Corporate before joining the venture team in 2011.
On today's Talk, we ask Houman about his outlook on venture as a top tier VC and his tips on managing business development opportunities and partnerships as a startup. We also talk to Houman about his investment in Zooms Seed round and what Menlo is looking at investing in during the crisis.
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Lawrence Mandel, Director of Production Engineering & Developer Acceleration at Shopify.
Prior to Shopify, Lawrence spent time at Mozilla as a Director of Engineering where he oversaw the release of the Firefox browser & before that he spent time at IBM as a Senior Product Manager.
On today's Talk, we ask Lawrence about running remote engineering teams and some best practices on how to keep developers engaged and on time during COVID. We also talk to Lawrence about life at Shopify and what it's like working for one of the world's fastest-growing technology companies while going head to head with Amazon.
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Rob Kazzahm former General Manager of Uber Canada.
Rob was one of the first launchers in Central & Eastern Europe and was at the frontlines of trying to onboard drivers and users on to Uber while managing the regulatory environment. We discuss growth tactics that worked and didn't work while assessing the proper way to attract new users with constrained resources.
Rob's experience building the Uber brand in Europe and then managing the Canadian office provides listeners with a behind the scenes viewpoint into the good and the bad side of rapid growth.
On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Chris Rasmussen, Founder & Chairman of Doxim.
Chris founded Doxim in 2000 with a vision to develop and deliver software that helps customers automate and digitize processes that enhance customer engagement. Through the last two decades he has lived through the ground zero of transformational change in business communications, information management, and document automation. Chris is a charismatic and approachable leader, and under his careful guidance Doxim has grown to become a leading supplier of SaaS customer engagement software to the North American Financial Services marketplace. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Administrative and Commercial Studies from Western University.
On today's Talk, we ask Chris about his experience building and managing Doxim during the last few crisis periods, and suggestions on transforming legacy paper-based industries.
Welcome to Tank Talks - the Ripple Ventures interactive podcast series where we go one-on-one with some of the worlds greatest Entreperuers, Operators and Investors to discuss the hard things about building and investing in startups.