The Exchanges

Q And then how did you make the move, then, into, into VC and tech itself?

A So that was a risk. I had a great job and all of that, and, you know, this was 2007, so if you just watch the big short, you know, financially, like, where the US market was during that time. I had everything going for me, and I decided I wanted, I wasn't stimulated enough. I wanted to go do things in tech. I felt like that was an area that was, um, had more growth, rapid growth. So, uh, I quit. And, um, bought a surfboard, and my parents were like, what are you doing? Six months later, I moved back to the city and had some interviews with Kenny Lear. Um, the funny thing was that I actually met Kenny on an interview before I worked at Martha. You know, I was just going around on interviews, and he was A friend introduced me to a headhunter who said, there's this awesome guy who's starting this thing, an internet newspaper, and I was like, oh, cool. So we met before I worked for Martha, had a great conversation, but he hadn't even hired, he had like three employees at the time, and this would have been the beginning of Huffington Post, and so I ended up getting that job with Martha, like, a couple weeks later. Kenny was still looking for someone when I quit, uh, in a different role, but he and I met again, realized that we You know, hit it off. He was an awesome guy. He was just really, really smart and fun, and felt like he had this, just this great energy that Martha had. You …

AI assessment note: “I wanted to go do things in tech... moved back to the city and had some interviews with Kenny”

Q So what is it that excites you about hardware? Because I often hear investors kind of shy away from hardware, from everything, from kind of production to distribution, um, To, to, you know, customer onboarding is much trickier than standard where you just download from an app store. So, so what excites you about it and gets you over those fears?

A Yeah, hardware's hard. It's hard to go through the beginning stages of gestation where, look, we're raising money, and we promise you that we're going to be able to build this product once we go through tooling and make sure we have the right manufacturer, and then everything gets delivered, and then it works. I mean, it's a long process, so you have to be patient, but fortunately, being a VC, we're in the game of waiting. Like, this is how it is, so I don't particularly Strike a company down for waiting in the beginning, so to speak, because once they ship, There's a lot of attention on that, and then hardware also, you have the opportunity to create several products under one company, which I think is, is also exciting. Once they figure out those channels, it can be quite fluid, but I'd say the IoT space allows consumers the ability to control their experience, you know, like through data and results that you're getting with attaching a product to probably a mobile app, so we've not seen that before. Things like Rachio, where you can Control your sprinkler system and see data before how much water you're using, which is so pertinent right now with California and Colorado. You can control that. You didn't have the ability to before with any sort of ease, and that also reduces your water cost and then your bills. I mean, I think that sort of stuff is exciting and really useful.

AI assessment note: “I think that sort of stuff is exciting and really useful.”

Q And then how does Galvanize Ventures fit into that?

A Galvanize Ventures is a small team. It's my partner, Nick Wyman and I, and then the three partners, um, Jim, Chris, and Lawrence, who are running Galvanize as well. We have a huge advantage having all of these Elements to a core business to provide to our startups. So not only do we have capital, but we have education. We have students graduating. Um, we have entrepreneurial education. We have space, space to throw your events. Hugely advantageous when you're a small startup, and you just have limited capital, limited time, and you need a lot of these resources to just fall into place for you and some, some elements. So it actually reminds me a lot of Betaworks. And that's part of the reason why I was attracted to it, was that we had all of those resources, um, we didn't have a, you know, full education program, but we had technologists in our space working together collaboratively, and so much cool stuff would come out of it. And so I imagine that this was Betaworks at scale, um, across the country, and, and what if we were doing what we did at Lyra Ventures, and why it worked so well, plus the technologists, plus the cool space, You know, a million dollars that you raise in your first round goes much farther.

AI assessment note: “having all of these Elements to a core business to provide to our startups”

Q And then for you at Galvanize, do you have any sectors or stages that you're particularly focused on?

A Yeah, we're early stage. Um, so the companies that are coming through our campuses that we like to invest inside and outside of galvanize, right? They are small, early stage. They could be just a idea at that point. And we like to say we follow from pre-seed all the way through series A, which that's now defined as like the seed as a process stage. And we'd like to participate with you the whole way through as a startup We do reserve for follow on. So that's important. We want to make sure that we can be one of these up and coming seed funds that signals and indicates to later stage investors. And we share a lot of deal flow with series A investors in later stage to say what's cool and coming up in these small markets. And those investors know that these companies have had help, right? We're not an incubator, but we coach them along the way.

AI assessment note: “we're early stage. Um, so the companies that are coming through our campuses”

Q And then how does Galvanize Ventures fit into that?

A Galvanize Ventures is a small team. It's my partner, Nick Wyman and I, and then the three partners, um, Jim, Chris, and Lawrence, who are running Galvanize as well. We have a huge advantage having all of these Elements to a core business to provide to our startups. So not only do we have capital, but we have education. We have students graduating. Um, we have entrepreneurial education. We have space, space to throw your events. Hugely advantageous when you're a small startup, and you just have limited capital, limited time, and you need a lot of these resources to just fall into place for you and some, some elements. So it actually reminds me a lot of Betaworks. And that's part of the reason why I was attracted to it, was that we had all of those resources, um, we didn't have a, you know, full education program, but we had technologists in our space working together collaboratively, and so much cool stuff would come out of it. And so I imagine that this was Betaworks at scale, um, across the country, and, and what if we were doing what we did at Lyra Ventures, and why it worked so well, plus the technologists, plus the cool space, You know, a million dollars that you raise in your first round goes much farther.

AI assessment note: “We have a huge advantage having all of these Elements to a core business”

Q So what is it that excites you about hardware? Because I often hear investors kind of shy away from hardware, from everything, from kind of production to distribution, um, To, to, you know, customer onboarding is much trickier than standard where you just download from an app store. So, so what excites you about it and gets you over those fears?

A Yeah, hardware's hard. It's hard to go through the beginning stages of gestation where, look, we're raising money, and we promise you that we're going to be able to build this product once we go through tooling and make sure we have the right manufacturer, and then everything gets delivered, and then it works. I mean, it's a long process, so you have to be patient, but fortunately, being a VC, we're in the game of waiting. Like, this is how it is, so I don't particularly Strike a company down for waiting in the beginning, so to speak, because once they ship, There's a lot of attention on that, and then hardware also, you have the opportunity to create several products under one company, which I think is, is also exciting. Once they figure out those channels, it can be quite fluid, but I'd say the IoT space allows consumers the ability to control their experience, you know, like through data and results that you're getting with attaching a product to probably a mobile app, so we've not seen that before. Things like Rachio, where you can Control your sprinkler system and see data before how much water you're using, which is so pertinent right now with California and Colorado. You can control that. You didn't have the ability to before with any sort of ease, and that also reduces your water cost and then your bills. I mean, I think that sort of stuff is exciting and really useful.

AI assessment note: “I think that sort of stuff is exciting and really useful.”

Q And then for you at Galvanize, do you have any sectors or stages that you're particularly focused on?

A Yeah, we're early stage. Um, so the companies that are coming through our campuses that we like to invest inside and outside of galvanize, right? They are small, early stage. They could be just a idea at that point. And we like to say we follow from pre-seed all the way through series A, which that's now defined as like the seed as a process stage. And we'd like to participate with you the whole way through as a startup We do reserve for follow on. So that's important. We want to make sure that we can be one of these up and coming seed funds that signals and indicates to later stage investors. And we share a lot of deal flow with series A investors in later stage to say what's cool and coming up in these small markets. And those investors know that these companies have had help, right? We're not an incubator, but we coach them along the way.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, we're early stage. Um, so the companies that are coming through our campuses”

Q And then you helped Ken launch Lyra Ventures. Was that just a knock-on effect of you working with him at Betaworks?

A Yeah, so, you know, he and I had our own separate suite with, like, this cool MTV fish tank, the original one, because he worked with MTV. I mean, he just has the coolest history ever, and, you know, we just took meetings, like, that was his strategy. He was like, we'll just take meetings and see who comes out, you know, comes and hangs out, um, which was the most casual, fun, I mean, I I couldn't imagine. I was working with Ben Lear as well, you know, and, and there was a lot of stuff going on at Huffington Post. I mean, every day was just a blast. Like, it was like, oh, look at this cool new technology that we're trying out, and, you know, it would be, I mean, like, uh, the guys were building the original MakerBot a couple years in, uh, because Brie Pettis, you know, dropped it off, and, like, that sort of stuff was just incredible looking back at it, and so he had an idea at one point. We were seeing a lot of startups in the Betaworks community, and Betaworks had a small, uh, Investment arm. And Kenny was doing some small angel investing. But out of frustration, I remember him one day saying, like, that's it, we're starting a fund. We have to formalize this process. And I was like, what's a venture fund? I had no idea. And, um, you know, he had an idea, but it's not as if he had a venture history or Ben did either. Um, we all really started this together, um, as novices, whi…

AI assessment note: “We were seeing a lot of startups in the Betaworks community... that's it, we're starting a fund.”

Q So that's, that's quite a lot of investments in quite a short amount of time. So what's the strategy then really at Galvanize? Is there a roadmap of how many you'd like to invest in? What are your thoughts on this?

A Yes, that is quite a lot of investments in short, short amount of time. We wanted to keep a diverse fund initially, and I think that's still working for us. We wanted to be able to include any company that is a member in Galvanize in our potential fund. So if we were to say that we were only doing IOT at the A stage, we would be very, very limited in terms of our investment opportunities. In house. So, um, we wanted to keep it really, really open, and I find, you know, people define you, and I say people, I say, uh, you know, the industry defines you pretty quickly anyway. Um, so if we keep it open, that definition sort of gets pushed back a little bit longer. Um, I've been told I'm running a fund purely for female founders, which Would be awesome, but I don't happen to be. You know, that's just in the market because I'm a female working in VC.

AI assessment note: “We wanted to keep a diverse fund initially, and I think that's still working”

Q So when you look back at these incredible experiences in, in building Lyra Ventures, and then at Huffington Post, and leading investments in, in Venmo, and Paperless Post, what were your biggest takeaways from these experiences?

A Well, this was the beginning, I find, of, you know, Lear's really known for a lot of consumer technology. If you look at their portfolio, it's really robust with some of the great picks that are popular right now. I mean, Paperless Post was a perfect example of something that I used, I found, because I was doing events for Kenny, and I just didn't want to address all these envelopes, and, uh, and he was like, oh, this is really cool, and I was like, actually, it makes a lot of sense, you know, and I mean, it, Again, like my history with Martha Stewart, I understood why a consumer would want some piece of technology and be able to have it be beautiful. So consumer technology really took off, and our fund, we understood things like Warby Parker, and Birchbox, and Bobble Bar, and BarkBox, and you know, the list is like massive, because we would use those things. And that was the whole push that we're now seeing, is that the New York market Is really working, you know, the, the older industry is really working with the new industry of consumer and e-commerce and content, uh, companies that are coming out of the startup world.

AI assessment note: “I understood why a consumer would want some piece of technology and be able to have it be beautiful.”

Q So that's, that's quite a lot of investments in quite a short amount of time. So what's the strategy then really at Galvanize? Is there a roadmap of how many you'd like to invest in? What are your thoughts on this?

A Yes, that is quite a lot of investments in short, short amount of time. We wanted to keep a diverse fund initially, and I think that's still working for us. We wanted to be able to include any company that is a member in Galvanize in our potential fund. So if we were to say that we were only doing IOT at the A stage, we would be very, very limited in terms of our investment opportunities. In house. So, um, we wanted to keep it really, really open, and I find, you know, people define you, and I say people, I say, uh, you know, the industry defines you pretty quickly anyway. Um, so if we keep it open, that definition sort of gets pushed back a little bit longer. Um, I've been told I'm running a fund purely for female founders, which Would be awesome, but I don't happen to be. You know, that's just in the market because I'm a female working in VC.

AI assessment note: “We wanted to keep a diverse fund initially, and I think that's still working”

Q And then how did you make the move, then, into, into VC and tech itself?

A So that was a risk. I had a great job and all of that, and, you know, this was 2007, so if you just watch the big short, you know, financially, like, where the US market was during that time. I had everything going for me, and I decided I wanted, I wasn't stimulated enough. I wanted to go do things in tech. I felt like that was an area that was, um, had more growth, rapid growth. So, uh, I quit. And, um, bought a surfboard, and my parents were like, what are you doing? Six months later, I moved back to the city and had some interviews with Kenny Lear. Um, the funny thing was that I actually met Kenny on an interview before I worked at Martha. You know, I was just going around on interviews, and he was A friend introduced me to a headhunter who said, there's this awesome guy who's starting this thing, an internet newspaper, and I was like, oh, cool. So we met before I worked for Martha, had a great conversation, but he hadn't even hired, he had like three employees at the time, and this would have been the beginning of Huffington Post, and so I ended up getting that job with Martha, like, a couple weeks later. Kenny was still looking for someone when I quit, uh, in a different role, but he and I met again, realized that we You know, hit it off. He was an awesome guy. He was just really, really smart and fun, and felt like he had this, just this great energy that Martha had. You …

AI assessment note: “moved back to the city and had some interviews with Kenny Lear”

Q Now, can you take us back to your early days of entering the industry, and how did you make your move into VC and tech?

A Yes, absolutely. I had, I have a very odd path, and I, I think every VC says this, and I think that's sort of the trend of VCs is it's, it's sort of serendipitous, especially these days. I started out, um, working in sports marketing, and I was an athlete in college, so that was sort of the thought process there, and then I moved to New York City and promptly got an interview at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which was total sheer luck, And they just told me to show up. Anyway, fast forward a month into it, and I was hired as Martha Stewart's, uh, executive assistant, which was a surprise to me because I didn't even know at the time that that would be who I was temping for. And the movie The Devil Wears Prada came out that year, and I, I can't tell you how many people bought me that DVD, like, as a joke.

AI assessment note: “I started out, um, working in sports marketing”

Q So when you look back at these incredible experiences in, in building Lyra Ventures, and then at Huffington Post, and leading investments in, in Venmo, and Paperless Post, what were your biggest takeaways from these experiences?

A Well, this was the beginning, I find, of, you know, Lear's really known for a lot of consumer technology. If you look at their portfolio, it's really robust with some of the great picks that are popular right now. I mean, Paperless Post was a perfect example of something that I used, I found, because I was doing events for Kenny, and I just didn't want to address all these envelopes, and, uh, and he was like, oh, this is really cool, and I was like, actually, it makes a lot of sense, you know, and I mean, it, Again, like my history with Martha Stewart, I understood why a consumer would want some piece of technology and be able to have it be beautiful. So consumer technology really took off, and our fund, we understood things like Warby Parker, and Birchbox, and Bobble Bar, and BarkBox, and you know, the list is like massive, because we would use those things. And that was the whole push that we're now seeing, is that the New York market Is really working, you know, the, the older industry is really working with the new industry of consumer and e-commerce and content, uh, companies that are coming out of the startup world.

AI assessment note: “we understood things like Warby Parker, and Birchbox... because we would use those things.”

Q And then you helped Ken launch Lyra Ventures. Was that just a knock-on effect of you working with him at Betaworks?

A Yeah, so, you know, he and I had our own separate suite with, like, this cool MTV fish tank, the original one, because he worked with MTV. I mean, he just has the coolest history ever, and, you know, we just took meetings, like, that was his strategy. He was like, we'll just take meetings and see who comes out, you know, comes and hangs out, um, which was the most casual, fun, I mean, I I couldn't imagine. I was working with Ben Lear as well, you know, and, and there was a lot of stuff going on at Huffington Post. I mean, every day was just a blast. Like, it was like, oh, look at this cool new technology that we're trying out, and, you know, it would be, I mean, like, uh, the guys were building the original MakerBot a couple years in, uh, because Brie Pettis, you know, dropped it off, and, like, that sort of stuff was just incredible looking back at it, and so he had an idea at one point. We were seeing a lot of startups in the Betaworks community, and Betaworks had a small, uh, Investment arm. And Kenny was doing some small angel investing. But out of frustration, I remember him one day saying, like, that's it, we're starting a fund. We have to formalize this process. And I was like, what's a venture fund? I had no idea. And, um, you know, he had an idea, but it's not as if he had a venture history or Ben did either. Um, we all really started this together, um, as novices, whi…

AI assessment note: “out of frustration, I remember him one day saying, like, that's it, we're starting a fund.”

Q What would they do without venture deals? I mean...

A Recommend it for everyone. I say to download it so you can, like, search terms when you're looking for something, because it's so much easier. The help of having, you know, the Huffington Post as a successful startup alongside, um, you know, and we sold that in 2011, among all this. So, like, everything was sort of cooking at the same time, and it couldn't have been a more perfect scenario. That really probably propelled us into the beginning of the New York City market, because New York Tech was sort of unheard of at the time, and there were VC firms, you know, more established for sure, but, uh, this was, the market was down. No one was investing in seed. It was, you know, everyone just froze their investments for a while, and, um, we were writing small checks, and all of a sudden it became, oh, go buy Betaworks, because they might write you a check, and then there's also Lyra Ventures that's there, and, you know, we had the media connections, so that was really enticing for any sort of, um, company that had any kind of content Or, or wanted to have access to that. And, and no, no VC would touch content at the time. They all, I mean, our first content investment, I think was food 52, um, which is doing really well now, but No one, no one would even consider it, and it appealed to me because of my history at Martha Stewart, you know, recipes, and home cooks, and a community ar…

AI assessment note: “Recommend it for everyone. I say to download it so you can, like, search”

Q What would they do without venture deals? I mean...

A Recommend it for everyone. I say to download it so you can, like, search terms when you're looking for something, because it's so much easier. The help of having, you know, the Huffington Post as a successful startup alongside, um, you know, and we sold that in 2011, among all this. So, like, everything was sort of cooking at the same time, and it couldn't have been a more perfect scenario. That really probably propelled us into the beginning of the New York City market, because New York Tech was sort of unheard of at the time, and there were VC firms, you know, more established for sure, but, uh, this was, the market was down. No one was investing in seed. It was, you know, everyone just froze their investments for a while, and, um, we were writing small checks, and all of a sudden it became, oh, go buy Betaworks, because they might write you a check, and then there's also Lyra Ventures that's there, and, you know, we had the media connections, so that was really enticing for any sort of, um, company that had any kind of content Or, or wanted to have access to that. And, and no, no VC would touch content at the time. They all, I mean, our first content investment, I think was food 52, um, which is doing really well now, but No one, no one would even consider it, and it appealed to me because of my history at Martha Stewart, you know, recipes, and home cooks, and a community ar…

AI assessment note: “Recommend it for everyone. I say to download it so you can, like, search terms”