Last September, I had the pleasure on this show of speaking to Mike Smeed, managing director of InMotion Ventures, the VC unit of Jaguar Land Rover, when he had just recently completed his first year on the job, which was also his first year as a CVC at all. Now, I’m happy to have him back on to talk about what he has learned, and how the team has …

Our emotions are not off-limits! In this episode, Jamie and Heather talk about what they thought of the movie Inside Out 2. They explore how different life stages, like puberty and menopause, can impact our emotions and thoughts, and how crucial godly community is to our sense of self. Grab your popcorn and come along for the ride!…

The US healthcare market is a big, complicated one. It’s fragmented, it’s large, with long sales and feedback cycles, making it difficult to innovate and bring about change at scale, especially that which the venture model would be patient enough for. The post Innovating in an intractable healthcare system appeared first on CVC Unplugged.…

Prayer is not a place to be perfect; it's a place to be honest. Habakkuk begins by pouring his heart out to God, lamenting the injustice and wickedness he sees. This kind of raw honesty can be uncomfortable, but God wants us to bring our whole selves to Him in prayer—the good, the bad, and the ugly. In this episode, Whit and Casey explore the cultu…

For Episode 11, I sat down with Cuco Vega who is the Head of Platform at Leap Global Partners, a firm with a global footprint in the United States and Latin America! Pretty unique. Cuco had interesting insights to share on how he conducts VC Platform, and I'm honestly so happy that I got to jazz with him. Here are the topics we covered: - The curre…

djs - dm for extended cutBy M Ramirez

Payments, payments, payments. In a world with a diminishing reliance on cash, payment technology is quite literally making the economy go round. But obviously, it's not always as easy as tapping a credit card. Today I speak to David Rolf, head of Visa Ventures, about the difficulties, and the opportunities out there, when it comes to letting people…

The devil doesn't always tempt us with things that are obviously evil—sometimes he tempts us with comfort. Wrestling with God involves not compromising in moments of discomfort. It means taking your whole self to the Lord and saying, "I don't know if I can trust you, but I'm going to dig into your word and community to find out." In this episode, J…

I will be playing for your enjoyment at Hanky in Melbourne, Australia. Fetish parties for the LGBTQI community🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Tix available via Eagle Leatherhttps://bit.ly/HankyOrangeTracklist: Wehbba - LlullNo Name Left - Self Destruct SequenceSon of Son - Lost ControlPet Shop Boys - Party in the Blitz (Superchumbo Remix)Pagano - ZeligEli Brown - When I …

The world of sports has been seeing some really dramatic shifts in recent years, including huge changes in how sports are consumed – less via the big networks and more via mobile platforms, for example – and that’s having big implications across the space, opening up opportunities for startups and investors alike. The post The Next Wave Webinar: In…

Universities, by their very nature, have always been strong centres of innovation. Scientific discoveries are routinely made in university research labs – but spinning those discoveries out into an operational business comes with numerous hurdles. Academics who go on to found companies based on their research have not just a steep learning curve to…

We have an insatiable appetite for stories. Art helps us make sense of the world, bypassing logic and getting directly at the heart. The story of Ruth teaches us in four chapters what Ruth and Naomi learned over a lifetime. In this episode, Whit and Lyndsey discuss ruth chapter 3, the power of story, how to make sense of the seemingly risqué action…

Lace up your shoes – we’re going on a walk! In this episode, Heather shares about her transformative experience walking the Camino Santiago pilgrimage. Throughout her 170 mile walk, Heather found solace in the simplicity of being present in the moment, meditating on scripture, and communing with the Lord. Her literal walk was a powerful picture of …

Just because you can grow very quickly, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. That’s the argument that Rob Bier, managing partner of Trellis Partners and 6:30 Partners, makes against the concept of “blitzscaling”, the hypergrowth philosophy popularised by Reid Hoffman. In his new book, called Smooth Scaling, as well as in a recent op-ed for Global C…

Life doesn’t always turn out the way we hope or plan. When we face loss and disappointment, we may question if God is who He says He is. We can learn a lot about facing adversity from the story of Ruth and Naomi, who both lose everything they have but continue to move toward God. In this episode, Whit and Chris discuss navigating suffering, wrestli…

Financial services permeate every other industry, and is a crucial part of everyone’s lives – whether you’re talking about payments, wealth management, or anything else, fintech touches it all. Today I’m joined by Hugo Bongers, partner at Motive Ventures, who by his own admission “lives and breathes” fintech. Formerly the head of ABN Amro Ventures,…

To read the story of Ruth as a romantic love story is to miss the full picture of God’s faithfulness in horrific circumstances. It is about love –– but the covenantal, sacrificial kind of Ruth to Naomi and God to His people. In the second part of their conversation about Ruth, Whit and Casey explore how God works through people and places to form u…

If you didn’t know, the Old Testament has some pretty crazy stories. One of the challenges in understanding ancient texts like Ruth is the vast cultural gap between then and now. Ruth unfolds against the backdrop of the time of the judges, a period marked by moral decline and spiritual turbulence in Israel. In this episode, Whit and Casey take a de…

Fred Schonenberg is the founder of VentureFuel, a New York-based advisory firm focused on bringing together startups and large organisations, mainly corporates including the likes of Coca-Cola, ABInBev, The Hershey Company, Comcast and more, to efficiently create commercial partnerships between them. The post How to get startups and corporates to f…

Have you ever felt like God speaks more clearly to others than to you? In the noise of life, discerning God's voice can be a challenge. But we have good news: you can get better at recognizing God’s voice! In this episode, Spiritual Formation Pastors Casey Shirley and Blake Zimmerman talk about how God speaks through His Spirit, the power of commun…

I spend the legendary episode number 10, with none other than Richard Hughes who is the Operating Partner at Gutter Capital, a fund I deeply admire because of how they treat their founders and the depth of the care they provide for their success. Richard helps his founders find and retain the most talented candidates at every level from entry-level…

One of the biggest hurdles to getting technology from universities out into the market has been that of intellectual property – who does this technology belong to and who can benefit from it? Traditionally, many universities have been loath to part with their IP rights, which is a death knell for any investment a potential spinout may be hoping for…

As parents, one of our greatest desires is to see our children not only get along but also develop long-lasting bonds that last their whole lives. How do we help our kids want to stay close to us and to each other? In this episode, Heather and Jamie get vulnerable about their own sibling dynamics, discuss healthy communication, and share their hope…

Finally, I sit down with Dani from Forum Ventures where she leads Platform for 380 startups, with a 6-person Platform team! We went into extreme detail to learn how they've built a community of founders/investors/mentors so well, and how they continue delivering tiptop value to their startups even at this scale. We left no stone unturned, and we'd …

Jeppe Hoier is a long-time venture investor with experience in financial VCs, corporate VCs and on his own as an angel investor, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. A former partner at Maersk Growth, the CVC arm of Danish logistics giant Maersk, Hoier talks about how he was initially sceptical of going into a corporate VC, having been initially dissuaded…

A lot of us respect the Bible but if we’re honest with ourselves, we struggle to love it. We haven't learned to "consume" what's spiritually nourishing. Scripture is not just literature; it's spiritual fuel, essential for our growth and vitality. In this episode, Whit and Casey discuss how to learn and grow in our understanding and love of God’s Wo…

What a unique episode. My admiration for Divya went up tenfold when I learned why she does what she does, and how she entered the world of venture capital. Often times we forget the weight of our own "why" and this episode reminded me about how our whys truly drive our behaviors. Divya is a VC Partner at Graham & Walker. Here are the topics we cove…

We’re going back into the vault this week! They say that the only constant in life, and business, is change – so how do you manage it effectively? That’s why last year I spoke with Jonny Crowe, a lawyer by training whose long career has been tied together by one central theme: executing and managing transformation. This is something he’s done both …

Sometimes it feels impossible to hear God in a world filled with distractions and doubts. We often want a miraculous, "burning bush" moment. But what if He's speaking through the ordinary, day-to-day? In this episode, Whit and Casey explore the pivotal role of wisdom, the common pitfalls we encounter in seeking God's voice, and their own encounters…

For a while now, there has been a clear trend, for example, of hospital functions like patient monitoring, diagnostics, and other treatments being moved closer to the patients, even into their homes, which frees up space within hospitals, which of course, even before covid, have been dealing with huge capacity constraints. Many hospitals are operat…

It's my first time hosting someone with such a unique background, who obsesses about communications and everything that surrounds it. Her perspective is truly one of a kind, and there's so much I learned in such a short amount of time talking to her. I'm so proud to be sharing this with you. Galina is the Head of Communications at Vibranium VC. Her…

hard and fast. April 2024 techno mixAbada - @charlottedewittemusicDepot - @iamweskaWhat We Think - @locoandjam (@d_unity remix)Nautilus - kr!z @laertemarcal remix (with @audion dancing again)Jubilee - Luca Morris & @mozzy-rekorder (with @tiga mind dimension)Biohazard - @laertemarcal (with missy elliot lose control)Snapshot 99 (dub) - @ben-sims (wit…

DL enabled for your techno setsBy M Ramirez

The way we buy things has been changing. Supercharged by the pandemic, the digital and physical sides of the retail experience continue to merge, data analytics continues to play an increasingly large role in how companies target and sell their products, and the consumer journey is, hopefully, getting easier and easier. The post Why Cencosud Ventur…

Is Jesus offering us a hard and miserable life? At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus unveils two distinct paths: one to life and one to death. The path to life is one of repentance and devotion – it requires leaving everything behind. But the treasure is worth the cost. In this episode, Whit and Casey explore the road to life Jesus sets out…

What a detailed interview. One of a kind. Julian and I went into specifics of how their fund (Maze) operates and how exactly they support their portfolio founders through a unique blend of VC Platform services. Great talk! Julian is the Product Analyst at MAZE. Here are the topics we cover: - How she landed her VC Platform role, despite being from …

Today I speak with two people who know a lot about getting stuff from A to B– Rose Chen, head of innovation investments and partnerships at supply chain and distribution company Wesco, and Hector Shibata, who has for over half a decade led AC Ventures, the CVC unit of coca cola bottler Arca Continental. The post Investing in a strong supply chain a…

Change is a constant in life. If you’re not prepared for a changing season, you can find yourself at loose ends, thinking, well, now what? It’s so important to find purpose wherever you’re at, and that happens best in godly community. In this episode, Jamie and Heather get vulnerable about where they’re at and how they can flourish in every area of…

With valuations down from where they were a couple of years ago, the exit horizons that investors had in mind when they made their original investment ended up being further away than they thought. The IPOs are still scarce, and M&As are still too few and far between, but investors still want exits. The post A booming market for secondaries appeare…

What a power-packed episode. I remember feeling electric after we finished recording this. Oliver has to be one of the smartest and most confident individuals I've met from the VC Platform industry this week. He had strong conviction behind his words, and I personally loved the story behind how him and his team think about their fund's brand, ident…

There are very few corporates out there that have two CVC funds, Toyota is one of them. Not only does it have an early-stage fund in Toyota Ventures, but also a growth stage unit in Woven Capital – which was previously investing on behalf of , as its name suggests, Woven by Toyota, the automaker’s next-generation mobility business, but has more rec…

DL and shareBy M Ramirez

It's my first time hosting two wonderful guests on the same episode, and it couldn't have gone better. Rachel and Emily, although early in the VC Platform roles at their own funds, were so honest and candid about their learnings, experience and advice! I learned so much about the industry thanks to them both, but also a personal reminder on the imp…

For years now, people – myself included – have been waiting for the advent, in earnest, of plant-based meats. Everyone loves a barbeque, but not the meat industry’s effect on the environment, our health, or the treatment of animals themselves. Alternatives have been coming to the shelf for years now, but the same problems persist – the taste is not…

Nothing can make us feel like a god quite like money––it gets to the heart of both our desires and our needs. In a world vying for our attention at every turn, Jesus challenges us to examine what truly has priority in our lives. You can’t serve God and money, so which will it be? In this episode, Whit and Casey break down Matthew 6:19-34. They talk…

I sat down with D'Arcy Jade Whelan from Outward VC to learn about how she and her team support early stage fintech founders post-investment. This 30ish minute episode is jampacked with information and I'm so excited to finally release it! Here are the topics we cover: D'Arcy studied Art History before getting into VC. And so naturally, I had to ask…

The story of the past year or so has been artificial intelligence and, in particular, generative artificial intelligence, or gen AI. Doesn’t matter what sector you’re in, or what countries you look at, everyone is trying to apply gen AI to their business, and investors are seeing a gold mine. The post Corporates underpin over half of all Gen AI inv…

Today I had the pleasure of talking with Eugenia Shevchenko from Accion Venture Lab to learn about how she supports her founders post-investment. Follow her for Mexico City tips on Instagram - @eugi_topmxfav! Here are the topics we cover: What advice would you give to a future VC Platform associate who wants to be their best self? What does "VC Pla…

Why does prayer often feel awkward and uncomfortable? We often struggle with feelings of inadequacy, striving for the perfect words while missing the authentic connection with God. The basis of prayer is not performance but relationship. So, how should we pray? In this episode, Whit and Casey talk about their personal experiences with prayer, our m…

What advice would you give your younger self? In this episode, Jamie and Heather have a candid conversation about Heather turning 50 and the unexpected reflections and realizations that come with it. They talk about the complexities of aging, parenting, the pressures of social media, and living to the fullest in every season of life. Plus, they hav…