Portfolio Pitch: Recent Episodes
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Portfolio Pitch is a Slice’d Podcast production powered by Startup Blogpost where investors share their learnings and personal experiences. Listeners gain valuable insights into the individuals that make investment decisions that can be critical to a companies success. During the podcast, our host will get to know the investor behind the investment and what it takes to be successful in raising capital from institutional investors.
Chris spent the beginning of his career building companies as a founder, an experience that he attributes to his success as an investor. Range Ventures was born out of the desire to grow Colorado into the next billion-dollar market over the next 10 years. On today's episode, Emily and Chris chat about why Range would pass on a deal, the Range field trip, and how they use empathy as their value add.
Michael Mizrahi was born and raised in Los Angeles and never plans on leaving. After finishing college at USC, Michael wanted to explore venture capital and discovered Wavemaker Partners. Based out of Santa Monica, Wavemaker is a cross-border venture fund with headquarters in the US and Asia. On today's episode, Emily and Michael chat about how Michael got into venture, 3-D printed rocketships and why you should become an expert in a certain field.
As a military kid and curious adult, Gavin Christensen found himself in many places before settling back into Utah around 2007, where he had the idea of a firm that catered towards the mountain west region. After a rocky start, Kickstart is now the most active investor in Utah. On today's episode, Gavin sits down with Emily to discuss Kickstarts funds, why storytelling is crucial to a successful pitch deck, and the importance of playing the long game.
Eunice was born in Cameroon and moved to the US to pursue higher education. After graduating from Louisiana Tech, Eunice worked as a Product Consultant and Analyst at Apple before starting her first company, DataGig. Eunice would soon become a serial entrepreneur and an investor advocating for African founders. In today's conversation, Eunice and Emily discuss Eunice’s impressive background, a couple of her favorite port co’s, and she shares her tips for overcoming rejection for both founders and investors.
Haley was educated in Accounting and Finance at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Beginning her career by working in Strategy, and Analytics, Haley helped build out TrunkClub and later, Mac + Mia’s strategy before pivoting into venture. On today’s conversation, Emily and Haley discuss being a woman in VC, some tips for founders, StartingLines exciting portfolio company's and why you should be your own advocate
Natty grew up in Boulder, Colorado and attended the University of Maryland where he ran track and studied Finance. Before diving into the finance world, Natty and his childhood best friend built a company to help travelers record and share their trips with friends and family after returning home from a backpacking trip abroad. They scaled and sold that company to AOL and Natty, now bit by the entrepreneurship bug, began his career as Managing Director at Boulder Techstars. In today's, episode Natty walks Emily through his journey from entrepreneur to investor, why pivoting is encouraged, and Natty’s personal philosophy for living a good life.
Kate Beardsley studied English and played basketball at Middlebury College in Vermont, a college well known for its language arts. So how did Kate get involved in Venture? Well, it started with Martha Stewert. In today's episode, we learn how Kate went from Chief of Staff for Martha to an investor with incredible intuition and her own firm, Hannah Grey.
Anna studied Political Science and Government at Harvard, and after some time on the Hill, she decided to pursue a career where progress happened faster than a glacial pace, so, Anna went to Wall Street. In today's episode, Anna and Emily discuss her experience as one of the only women on the Wall Street trading floor, how being a successful founder helps her as an investor, and why Rise of the Rest is leveraging early-stage capital to drive economic growth.
Coming out of a career as a Law Professor at the University of Chicago, Sal wanted to do something more proactive to change the law instead of just sitting around and talking about it. In today’s conversation, Emily and Sal discuss why Trust Venture is investing in incumbent-heavy industries, how they are actively changing the legal landscape for their portfolio companies, and Sal shares some very exciting portco’s with us
On today’s episode, we sit down with Rafiq Amed and Mitul Patel, partners at Dipalo Ventures. Emily and our guests chat about how being founders have impacted their investment approach, why Dipalos residency program is unique and the importance of sustainability in venture.
Before Firebrand, Chris Marks founded his own firm Blue Note Ventures that invested early stage in technology startups with authentic founders. After meeting his partner John Fein at Techstars, the two merged funds and are operating as Firebrand Ventures, John's first fund. In today's episode, Chris and Emily discuss what it’s been like merging VC firms, how a Techstars connection brought them together, and why Austin, Texas is the next big place for venture.
Caroline Casson is a partner at Vitalize Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on making capital more accessible. Before working in venture, Caroline studied math and psychology and participated in marketing and insurance internships where she learned what she didn't want to do. After discovering venture, Caroline found her true passion by investing in the future of work and learning all while building her personal brand outside of venture.
Mike Freeman is CEO and General Partner at Innosphere Ventures, a venture capital firm located in Fort Collins, CO. In this episode, Emily and Mike chat about red flags in founders, university involvement in venture, what region is the most exciting, and advice for up-and-coming investors.
Jim Franklin is an angel investor based in Boulder, CO and ex-CEO who attributes his personal success to connecting Colorado success stories via collecting people, stories, and capital. Today Emily talked to Jim about his law degree, his philanthropic investment thesis, and why you should invest in what you know.