Jonathan Hakakian joined SoundBoard Consulting Group, LLC in 2010 to focus on early-stage growth companies after several years working in a startup. In 2012 he co-founded SoundBoard Angel Fund in order to build a community of experienced entrepreneurs outside of NYC to formally invest in early-stage companies. He also continues to coach “new” e ...…

Daniel Gulati is partner at Comcast Ventures, a corporate venture firm focused on early stage consumer internet companies. Prior to becoming a VC, Daniel founded FashionStake an indie online designer marketplace which was later acquired by Fab.com. He also an author, prior consultant and blockchain enthusiast. Listen and Learn: How ecommerce ha ...…

Gabriel Jarrosson is a business angel, cryptocurrency investor and accomplished entrepreneur. He co-founded French e-learning platform albert academie and is an angel investor in Storj, Shapr, BitStamp and Seedrs among many other others. He is also deeply involved in blockchain and advises a handful of companies. Listen and Learn: The challenge ...…

David Weekly is a product manager at Google (also previously at Facebook), a syndicate lead for Drone.vc on Angellist and the founder of HackerDojo, the world’s largest non-profit hackerspace. David is intimately involved with the startup ecosystem, a serial founder and facilitator and an active angel investor with over 40 investments to date. ...…

Jenny Rooke is the founder and managing partner or Genoa Ventures (formerly 5 Prime Ventures) where she funds & builds companies that change the way science gets done with new tools and technologies. She has a PhD in Genetics, a Bachelors in physics, and a background in computer science and works closely with early-stage life science start-ups. ...…

Today’s an interesting episode where Matthew Le Merle interviews The Syndicate podcast host Matt Ward, sharing his story, lessons learned and controversial/contrarian opinions to make the podcast more interesting and informative overall. Previously, Matt built and sold #1 crowdfunding podcast, artofthekickstart.com and transitioned into own pro ...…

Charlie O’Donnell has been an active member of the NYC startup community for over a decade. He is the sole Partner and Founder at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures that invested in the first rounds of Canary, The Wing, Ample Hills, Hungryroot, Clubhouse, Petal, and goTenna. Prior to Brooklyn Bridge, Charlie worked at Union Square Ventures and... The pos ...…

Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in Silicon Valley, having closed 200+ investments since 2004. An early angel investor in Web 2.0, Jeff and his team have backed successful startups like Mint (Intuit), Kongregate (GameStop), Brightroll (Yahoo), LiveRamp ( ...…

Alex Norman is a serial entrepreneur and tech community builder that is working to build Canadian tech communities across the country through events, connections, advice, and investment. He built arguably the top Toronto/Canadian based tech event: TechToronto, works with Angellist and runs an early stage investment syndicate. Listen and Learn: ...…

Weisman currently serves as an Executive Director at Singularity University where he oversees all the company’s large programs including the Global Summit, Industry Summits (Exponential Medicine, Exponential Manufacturing, and Exponential Finance), and International Summits. Prior to Singularity University, Will spent time as an investor, advis ...…

Alex is a Partner at Relay Ventures, an early stage venture fund exclusively focused on mobile computing. Alex oversees direct investments in a broad range of mobile applications and services companies. Alex is an active board member and observer in supporting Bionym, Influitive, ClearFit, TouchBistro, Kira and teaBOT. Alex overseas the Fund’s ...…

Jonathan Nelson is the founder of Hackers/Founders, the largest global network of tech founders with over 300k members across 45 countries. He build a $600M portfolio market cap in first 5 years and runs HACK Fund, a liquid venture fund on the blockchain. Jonathan has also served on an SEC Advisory Committee on Capital Formation... The post Thi ...…

Scott MacDonald is the co-founder of McRock Capital, a Toronto based VC firm focused on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). He is also the Director and Chairman of numerous high-growth public and private companies. Listen and Learn: The reason Scott only invests in IoT with recurring revenue What investors and entrepreneurs need to know.. ...…

Matt Hartman is a partner at NYC based Betaworks, an early stage accelerator/venture studio with a killer track record. Matt leads the Seed Investments team and helps the company decide which bets to make. Prior to Betaworks, Matt was serial entrepreneur and worked on a variety of early stage startups. Listen and Learn: The evolution... The pos ...…

Michael Cardamone was one of the first 30 employees at Box and went on to lead partnerships at AcademixDirect. After 6 years in operating roles, he started and is now the Managing Director of Accelerise in San Francisco (www.acceleprise.vc), an enterprise software focused accelerator backed by leading operators. In addition to Acceleprise, he i ...…

Matthew Le Merle is co-founder and Managing Partner of Fifth Era and of Keiretsu Capital – the most active early stage venture investors backing more than 175 companies a year. Matthew is an expert on corporate growth, innovation and business transformations having advised leading companies including Amazon, Cisco, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, ...…

Andrew Ackerman is a successful serial entrepreneur, startup mentor, and occasional angel investor that runs Dreamit’s UrbanTech Accelerator. He work closely with Dreamit’s partners to develop and execute on their strategies for sourcing external innovation and encouraging internal innovation and helped build one of the top 10 accelerators worl ...…

Brad is a co-founder and General Partner at Primary Venture Partners (formerly High Peaks Venture Partners). He has been a venture investor since the bubble days of the late 1990s, starting his investing career with The Berkshires Capital Investors and Village Ventures. Prior to his VC career, he was a strategy consultant with Monitor Group,... ...…

Benjamin Joffe is a Partner at HAX, the #1 global investor in early stage hardware startups with over 200 investments. Prior to HAX he worked mostly across Asia for the past 18 years (China, Japan, Korea) in various high-tech industries: aerospace, telecom, Internet, mobile, gaming. and ran his own cross-border research & advisory firm. He... T ...…

Pete is a software engineer, serial founder and advisor/investor of data-backed startups with a passion building valuable resources and community for the tech community. He beliefs data sets along with advances in machine learning and neural networks are paving the way for the most significant disruption we’ve seen since the advent of the PC. D ...…

Uber is On the surface this seems contrarian. When is being last better than being first? Steve Jobs understood this. Apple didn’t make the 1st MP3 player or the 1st smartphone. Yet in consumer tech, Apple is synonymous with both. Uber being one of the most known startups has called for plenty of media coverage... The post Uber is Going to 0, a ...…

Sean Schantzen is the cofounder and CEO of the Health Rosetta Group and Institute, as well as a managing partner in their seed fund, the Quad Aim Fund. They are building an ecosystem to transform the health care system by enabling employers to change how they buy to pay less and get more. This three... The post How Healthcare Could Bankrupt Ame ...…

Leo Polovets is a software engineer turned VC and a cofounder/managing partner at a Susa Ventures, a $50m seed stage fund. He mostly focus on b2b companies that are building up strong long-term competitive advantages (network effects, proprietary datasets, economics of scale, etc.) Prior to Susa Ventures, IHewas one of the first 10 software eng ...…

Ted Serbinski is an entrepreneur and early stage investor operating at the intersection of Detroit’s automotive dominance and its entrepreneurial resurgence. He is the Managing Director of Techstars Mobility, the first US startup accelerator program focused on next-generation mobility technologies. Previously, he was a Partner and founding team ...…

Jenny Fielding is a prolific angel investor and the Managing Director of Techstars NY, where she focuses on helping founders create the future, specifically focusing on Fintech and IoT. Prior to TechStars Jenny was in charge of BBC’s Ventures, the BBC’s innovation and venture arm. She’s also a quite accomplished founder, building Switch-Mobile ...…

Oliver Mitchell has been an operator and manager of emerging technologies for over 20 years, building and selling numerous ventures, including: Holmes Protection and Americash while also launching RobotGalaxy, a national EdTech brand. He has been investing in the robotics industry for close to 10 years, with four successful exits in the past tw ...…

Rob Go is a founding partner of NextView Ventures, a seed fund focused on consumer and the everyday economy. Based out of Boston and NYC, NextView has been leading the way on East Coast consumer innovation and built a great brand through their podcast and constant content. Prior to this, Rob worked at Spark Capital... The post Rob Go of NextVie ...…

Those words terrify entrepreneurs. You get one chance to make a first impression. And fear of failure often ruins that. Overconfidence is equally harmful though. And one way or another, most startups screw this up. It isn’t easy. It isn’t hard either though. Short, sweet and to the point. That is what you should be... The post The Memorable Ele ...…

SC Moatti is a technology visionary, entrepreneur and investor (. She is the founding partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and Products That Count, a global community of product managers, leaders and founders. Previously, she built products that billions of people use at Facebook, Nokia and Electronic Arts. Listen a ...…

Source: FanArt Get rich or die trying — that’s a common mantra among entrepreneurs, gangsters and drug dealers. I know that was my mindset. How can I hustle my way to a million bucks? That was the question I asked myself every day, and night. Looking back, this was the wrong question to ask. But as Kanye... The post Don’t Mine for Gold When You ...…

Michael Weiksner is the founder of Rostrum Capital, a VC fund focused next generation of platform companies that is also building out a crypto division to focus on disruptive blockchain opportunities. Previously he raised over $2.5mm for EndlessTV, an innovative mobile video app that was the first mobile app to provide swipeable shopping. Prior ...…

Hardware is hard. Consumer hardware is even worse. As an ex ecommerce seller with years of experience manufacturing overseas, I can tell you dealing with suppliers, MOQs (minimum order quantities), quality control, cash flow and even LTV are tough. Unlike SaaS where you build it once and sell again and again with almost no added... The post Con ...…

Esther Dyson is a down to earth super angel that practically invented the category. Her incredible portfolio includes the likes of Facebook, Square, 23andme, Flickr, Evernote and many more. Esther now runs Way to Wellville, a non-profit focused on curing America health crisis with a focus on education and early, preventative care. She serves on ...…

Two days ago I had the privilege of moderating a roundtable with some of the smartest futurists and forward thinkers in the industry. Our panelists included Tim O’Reilly, James Allworth, Ben Gilbert and Jeff Morris Jr. [VIDEO REPLAY] The State of Consumer Tech Roundtable with Tim O’Reilly, James Allworth, Ben Gilbert… It was an interesting... T ...…

Parker Thompson’s a Partner at Angellist, an active investor and syndicate lead and likes to help startups in any way he can. Before AL, he was a mentor, partner and as an early employee at 500Startups, where he helped Dave McClure and co build 500 into a top tier accelerator., help His illustrious past includes... The post Angellist’s Parker T ...…

The internet has changed. The world of the walled garden is here. This creates interesting dynamics, problems and opportunities for startups. It is exciting, and terrifying. Let me explain. My background is ecommerce and Amazon. In 2015 I invested ~$8k in product and managed to scale my “startup” to a 7 figure exit at the... The post Facebook’s ...…

Avidan is the Founding Partner of Root Ventures. Before Root, he designed industrial robotics for Food Network’s kitchens. Prior to that, Avidan was CTO of CIM Group, where he focused on industrial internet investing, and worked as an embedded application developer at Excite@Home. Listen and Learn: Why Avidan focuses exclusively on hardware bas ...…

Yes, that headline and image is meant to be provocative. Startups need to sell. Attention is critical. But not clickbait. So grab your coffee and let’s go (btw that definitely isn’t me!). First, a quick backstory My background is ecommerce and Amazon. In 2015 I invested $8k in product and managed to scale my “startup”... The post Why I Quit Sta ...…

Adam Draper’s the founder of Boost.vc, an accelerator and fund focused creating a sci-fi future. They work with and invest in blockchain and VR companies with exceptions made for breakthrough businesses. Adam comes from a venture background and is working to continue the Draper tradition of excellence and advancing the future. Listen and Learn: ...…

“If you’ve got a dream and your dream doesn’t require a team, you need to dream bigger.” — Unknown When working with startups (both as an investor and advisor), I like to focus on incentivizes. The more aligned your organization is, the better the performance will be. Commissioned sales people are hustlers. Ever buy a used car?... The post Star ...…

Peter Cowley has been active angel investor for ten years, personally investing in over 60 startups and was named UK Business Angel of the Year 2014/15 and Best Angel of the World by the World Business Angel Investment Forum in February 2017. He is also the chair of the board of the Cambridge Business Angels... The post The Problem with Transpa ...…

The Syndicate hosted The Future of Consumer Tech and Humanity Roundtable on 12/20/17. Our Expert Panelists: Tim O’Reilly is a futurist that has reshaped the computer industry, coined the terms “open source software”, “web 2.0” and “the Maker movement” and had a hand in framing each of those big ideas. He is the founder, CEO, and... The post The ...…

Keith is an experienced investor, advisor, operator and PE manager focused on impact investing for awesome ROIs. Prior to working at Flat World Partners, a global impact VC firm focused on truly worldchanging products helping move humanity foward, Keith worked his way up the private equity world before making the jump into venture. Today Keith. ...…

Software as a service is the new heroine. Companies and individuals sign up for free trials and are instantly hooked. It is a hell of a drug. For B2B customers this is especially true. Most businesses hate change. When the ball is rolling, the last thing you want is overhaul the entire new system. You... The post How to Start a Series A Fundabl ...…

Julian Zawistowski is founder and CEO of Golem, the decentralized supercomputer company that raised $8.6M in 30 minutes in their crowdfunding/ICO. Julian’s company is now valued at $280M and he talks candidly about building a crypto company, managing investors and building a gamechanging disruptive technology. Listen and Learn: How the cryptocu ...…

The Syndicate hosted The Future of AI and Autonomous Vehicles Live Streamed Roundtable on 12/11/17 Our expert panelists include: Dennis Mortensen a super successful serial entrepreneur with 3 exits and is currently the founder of X.ai. His company has raised $44M and are solving the issues of scheduling and personal assistants. He has a ton of ...…

“Moving first is a tactic, not a goal….It’s much better to be a last mover.” — Peter Thiel On the surface this seems contrarian. When is being last better than being first? Steve Jobs understood this. Apple didn’t make the 1st MP3 player or the 1st smartphone. Yet in consumer tech, Apple is synonymous with both. That was no accident.... The pos ...…

Arlan Hamilton isn’t your typical VC. She’s a smart, scrappy founder and fighter and believes in inclusion and diversity to drive outsized rewards. Her firm Backstage Capital invests in underrepresented founders like herself: people of color, LGBT and anyone SF wouldn’t normally give a fair shake. She’s fiery, she attacks conventions and she’s ...…

If you haven’t heard, Amazon won ecommerce. Bezos’ juggernaut is the most powerful marketplace and brand the Western world has ever seen (get my analysis here as an ex 7 figure Amazon seller). But it isn’t the only game in town. Every year new startups appear, looking to compete and grab their piece of the... The post The Broken Business of Eco ...…

Shaun Abrahamson’s an angel investor and venture capitalist focused on the urbanization and transformation of cities. He’s an investor in Blue Bottle, Soma Water, Refinery29, Skycatch, Blokable and dozens of other early stage companies. Previously he worked at and with several Dotcom and made a bit of money with an exit, leading into his invest ...…