For a bonus episode of the Founders Forward Podcast, we are joined by Mike Evans. Mike is the founder of GrubHub and the current CEO of Fixer — Fixer provides skilled experts, solving a variety of home problems in one visit. Mike shares the ins and outs of his time building GrubHub — from humble beginnings in his Chicago apartment to the IPO 10+ ye…

They did it! Jonathan and the team have wrapped up their raise and they are in the process of finishing up the round. Jonathan shares what he has learned during the raise and what is next for The Juice.By Visible Team

The first term sheets are in hand and the end of the raise is in sight. Jonathan joins us to discuss the term sheets he has in hand and what due diligence has been like so far. Finally, we talk through what hiring plans and projections look like once the cash is in the bank.By Visible Team

Coming off of their first ProductHunt launch, Jonathan joins us to share the current status of the round. We discuss what they’ve been focusing on internally as a business. Finally, we discuss the term sheets that are on their way.By Visible Team

We are back in the heart of The Juice fundraise. They are a few weeks in and starting to get to the middle of the “3 months of pitching.” We discuss how Jonathan is leveraging verbal commits to build urgency with new investors and discuss what is being shared in The Juice’s data room.By Visible Team

Jonathan has been busy with investor meetings and pitches since the last time we chatted. Jonathan breaks down the “VC speed dating” event he attended and updates on other investor conversations. Finally, we hit on financial projections at the pre-seed/seed stage and what investors are looking for in the early stages of financial projections.…

Trey Closson is the CEO and Founder of Amplio — a platform for proactively identifying the risks of tomorrow's supply chain. Prior to starting Amplio, Trey spent time at Flexport and Georgia Pacific. Trey joins us to break down his first year as a founder and what he has learned from transitioning from operator to founder. A couple of key topics we…

On Week 3 of the Founders Forward Fundraising Series, Jonathan Gandolf, CEO of The Juice, discusses how pre-seed investors have been evaluating their revenue vs. product vs. team. A few other key topics we hit on: How to talk about revenue with investors How Jonathan leveraged their product while pitching Adding investors to the top of an investor …

Jonathan joins us after his first few weeks of heads-down fundraising. We discuss how he is going about adjusting and tweaking his pitch deck as more feedback comes in and how he is leveraging his network (and customers) to find intros to potential investors. A few other key topics we hit on: Managing pitch deck recommendations and changes Designin…

We dig into the business behind The Juice and the fundamentals of their pre-seed funding round. Jonathan is ready to go with a list of 60 potential investors and a pitch deck in hand. Hop around and learn more about what we covered in week 1 below: The Juice business model How Jonathan is building his investor outreach list What Jonathan’s plans ar…

Josh Abulafia & Elle Curran are the Co-founders of ChefPrep. ChefPrep is a marketplace for ready made meals that are prepared by award winning restaurants, delivered to your door. Josh and Elle join us to break down their journey as startup founders. A few key topics: 00:00 Introduction 01:20 How ChefPrep validated their core thesis 02:45 Why ChefP…

Malcolm Burenstam Linder is the CEO and Co-founder of Alva Labs. The team at Alva Labs is creating a more fair and data-driven recruitment process. Malcolm joins us to break down his story and journey as a founder. A few key topics we hit on: How Alva found their first customers Using personal networks to find their first customers Why founders nee…

Matt Achariam and Zach Hamed are the Co-founders of Clay. Clay is a beautiful and private home for all your relationships. Populated from the ground up using your calendar and social history, Clay is the most stunning, powerful way to remember who you’ve met—and what matters to them. Matt & Zach join us to hit on a few key ideas: 00:00 Introduction…

Yaw Aning is the CEO and Founder of Malomo. Malomo is a shipment tracking platform that helps eCommerce brands turn order tracking from a cost center into a profitable marketing channel. Yaw joins us to break down: 00:00 Introduction 2:10 How Malomo found their first customers 13:10 The importance of finding a co-founder 15:00 How and why you need …

For the first episode, we welcomed Nick Loui, CEO and Founder of PeakMetrics. PeakMetrics uses machine learning to spot trends & predict message resonance across news, social, and TV/radio. In this episode, we break down: — Getting over the cold start problem — Creating value through aggregation — Narrowing down your target audience Give episode 1 …

On episode 10 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Gale Wilkinson. Gale is the Managing Partner at Vitalize Ventures — "an early-stage fund & angel community investing in software focused on future of work and future of learning." Before starting Vitalize, Gale started her career in venture capital at Irish Angels. Gale is one of our favorit…

On episode 9 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Lisa Besserman. Lias Besserman is the Managing Director at Expa — an accelerator based in Austin, TX dedicated to supporting pre-seed companies. Lisa started her career as an economist but ultimately found her way to founding Startup Buenos Aires — an accelerator located in Buenos Aires to he…

On episode 8 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Anne Dwane. Anne is the partner and co-founder at Village Global — an early-stage venture capital firm backed by successful entrepreneurs. Anne has a unique perspective on the VC space as she founded her first successful startup, Military.com, in the 1990s. After Military.com, Anne founded a …

On episode 7 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Kristian Andersen. Kristian is a founder and partner at High Alpha, a venture studio located in Indianapolis. Before launching High Alpha, Kristian founded the prolific design agency, Studio Science. During his time at Studio Science, Kristian primarily served software companies which ultimat…

On episode 6, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Corinne Riley. Corinne is an investor at the prolific venture capital firm, Greylock, where she primarily invests in B2B companies. Over the course of her career, Corinne has built a knack for helping companies build and develop a go-to-market motion. Corinne has extensive knowledge…

On episode 5, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Ezra Galston. Ezra is the founder and partner at Starting Line, a consumer-focused VC fund located in Chicago. As someone who has faced the ups and downs of being a founder (plus the stresses of fundraising), Ezra and the team at Starting Line has made mental health a focus. Every f…

On episode 4, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Tyler Tringas. Tyler is the founder and General Partner at Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital). The Calm Company Fund invests in exactly what it sounds like — "profitable, sustainable, calm businesses." Tyler offers a unique perspective as someone who invest in companies th…

On episode 3, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Elizabeth Yin. Elizabeth is the founder of Hustle Fund, a venture fund for "hilariously-early founders." As a past founder and current investor (and a founder favorite Twitter follow), Elizabeth knows what it takes to successfully raise a round of venture capital. Elizabeth breaks d…

On episode 2, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Brett Brohl of Bread & Butter Ventures. Brett is the Managing Director of Bread & Butter Ventures as well as the Managing Director of the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator. As a past founder and current investor, Brett has a wealth of knowledge on how founders can best create momen…

On episode 1, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome on Kenn So of Shasta Ventures. Kenn is an associate at Shasta and invests in B2B enterprise software companies with a personal focus in Machine Learning. Kenn joins the Founders Forward to break down the trends taking place that are influencing company valuations. We also dig into ho…

On episode 12 of the Founders Forward Podcast we are joined by Lex Oiler, CEO and Founder of Billbox. Billbox is "reversing the debt cycle by making it easier for patients to pay medical bills- while improving their credit score." Lex took the idea for Billbox, started the company, and raised capital all within a few months (with a product launch s…

On episode 11 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Lolita Taub of Community Fund and Eric Bahn of Hustle Fund. Eric and Lolita recently launched The First Pitches Podcast “where famous founders share the first version of their pitch.” Combined with the fact that they are both investors in early stage startups it is fair to say they’ve seen th…

On episode 9 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Jim McKelvey, Co-Founder of Square. The now publicly traded company with a $100B+ market cap has humble beginnings dating back to Jim and his time in a glass studio. Jim recently published his book, The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time, that studies ho…

On episode 9 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Don Brown, Founder and CEO of LifeOmic. Prior to starting LifeOmic Don started 6 companies with his first being acquired by GM in 1986 and his most recent, Interactive Intelligence, being acquired for $1.4B in 2016. Since the acquisition Don has turned to his passion of medicine and the medica…

On episode 8 of the Founders Forward Podcast we interview Nate Turner, Co-Founder of Ten Speed. Ten Speed helps "companies accelerate funnel growth by quickly growing traffic to existing content." Prior to starting Ten Speed, Nate was the VP of Marketing Operations at Sprout Social (and their first marketer). Nate helped take Sprout Social from a m…

On episode 7 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Cheryl Campos, Head of Venture Growth and Partnerships at Republic. Republic is a crowdfunding platform for startups. It allows founders to access a wide range of angel investors and small check investors. Cheryl has been there for 3+ years and has watched the market transform and become a pop…

On episode 6 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Yin Wu, CEO and Founder of Pulley. Pulley is a cap table platform for hyper-growth startups. Pulley is the third company that Yin has started so it is safe to say she knows the ins and outs of building a startup.By Visible Team

On episode 5 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Kyle Poyar, VP of Growth at OpenView Ventures. OpenView Ventures is an expansion stage venture firm with an extreme focus on software (SaaS) companies. Unique to OpenView is their team of in-house experts, like Kyle, that portfolio companies can call on to help tackle a growth issue. OpenView …

On episode 4 of the Founders Forward Podcast we are joined by Aishetu Dozie, the CEO and Founder of Bossy Cosmetics. Before starting Bossy, Aishetu worked in banking at just about every major firm. Aishetu has an incredible story from banking to beauty. From her struggles raising venture capital to the incredible community she has built at Bossy.…

On episode 3 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Jeff Kahn, the CEO and Founder of Rise Science. Rise is the only app that unlocks the real-world benefits of better sleep. Jeff has 10 years of sleep science experience and research. Before starting Rise Science Jeff spent time publishing academic articles and supporting world class athletes a…

On episode 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast we are joined by Amanda Goetz, CMO of Teal and Founder at House of Wise. Before taking the leap into her second time as a founder, Amanda was the VP of Marketing at The Knot. With her experience in branding and recent jump to starting House of Wise we couldn’t think of a better guest to chat about all th…

What You Can Expect to Learn from Lindsay: Why invest in a podcast at your company? How to measure podcast success, find the right guest, and create great content. Leverage podcasting for board meetings and product launches. How Lindsay approached fundraising and why she actually liked it. How to set boundaries and balance with work. The importance…