The Exchanges

Q And talking of developments in the investing kind of patterns, you recently tweeted that the impact investing wave is coming. Can you explain to us a little, for anyone maybe who doesn't know what impact investing is? To start with.

A Sure. Very exciting, uh, trend. I, I think the impact investing wave is, is definitely coming, and so, so what is impact investing? It's for-profit investing that also seeks to have a positive social impact, and the investors who are excited about it, um, which increasingly includes huge pools of capital, including the Rockefeller Foundation and BlackRock and Bain and Pension Fund, There's a lot of people who want to invest in these kinds of investments. They don't see a conflict in those two ends, but rather kind of two worthy ends that overlap in an interesting number of cases, and they really seek to double down in those cases. Some impacting investors, uh, may be willing to get a slightly lower, but still respectable return in exchange for knowing their investment is having a positive social impact. And Interestingly, I think some of the most promising impact investments are internet companies and specifically new platforms that provide opportunity for people to make money or save money or have opportunity that they otherwise wouldn't have had. And, you know, one really interesting early example was eBay, which brought a huge number out of poverty, just gave them an opportunity to make money in a low friction way where they didn't have to open a, you know, an offline store and could monetize some of their existing Um, you know, assets. And I think the last piece of the puzz…

AI assessment note: “It's for-profit investing that also seeks to have a positive social impact”

Q easily designed UI so you can Easily identify the most relevant and suitable candidates for your job in the shortest amount of time. Check them out at www.hiringscreen.com or tweet them at Hiring Screen RH. You have now arrived at your destination. Now, I'm so happy to have you on the show, and can you kick us off by telling us how you got it started in the venture industry?

A Sure. Uh, I got into the venture industry serendipitously and, and rather unexpectedly. Um, it's a funny story. I got an offer, uh, out of the blue to join a venture firm where I knew one of the partners, and I think for the sake of propriety, I probably shouldn't identify the firm, given the story. Time. Uh, I was working at the tech group, um, at Goldman Sachs, but when I told Goldman I was going to go, they got very upset at the firm for making the offer, particularly since this venture firm had poached two great people from Goldman's tech group before they approached me. Um, and Goldman basically said they had to draw a line in the sand and told the firm that if they hired me, they would stop working with them. Um, and the venture firm Told me that they thought they might be able to work out a compromise with Goldman over several months, and that the best thing I could do in the meantime was to get some other offers to show Goldman I was really going to leave. So I did, and I ended up finding a better offer, a more interesting offer, and I informed the venture firm that had been courting me that I was going to take the offer, and so I did, and I was off to the races, and that's how I became a venture capitalist, and I worked for eight years in Boston and then moved to New York because it was increasingly becoming the center of startup activity on the East Coast, and I've be…

AI assessment note: “I ended up finding a better offer... and that's how I became a venture capitalist”

Q And in those rounds where it is super competitive, like data miner, how do you stand out? What's your kind of selling value add?

A That's a good question. You know, I think, um, in early stages, uh, of, of any company, founders, founders may look for a set of things, and they may have slightly different emphases, but, but I guess, I think on the whole, they, they're looking for kind of similar general things. One is they want someone who can really add value to their business, who can really move the needle for them, and startups generally need a lot more help in the early stages than when, you They're a rapidly growing, sizable company, you know, raising growth capital, where it's much more about valuation. But in the early days, they want help building a team. Dataminer really was eager to help, you know, build a world-class executive team. They had this great technology, but, um, they had not yet, um, sort of built a team to help take this to market, and they knew that what they had was very powerful. So they, that was one of the most important things they were looking for. Um, and, I think because I had worked with a variety of, of companies in New York that had built very successful businesses like the Guilt Group, Intent Media, um, they said, we want someone like that, someone who can help us, you know, um, hire great executives and just help us scale very fast in the early days. I think another element is they, they really want someone that understands their business and that they'd like to work wit…

AI assessment note: “someone who can help us, you know, um, hire great executives and just help us scale”

Q And talking of developments in the investing kind of patterns, you recently tweeted that the impact investing wave is coming. Can you explain to us a little, for anyone maybe who doesn't know what impact investing is? To start with.

A Sure. Very exciting, uh, trend. I, I think the impact investing wave is, is definitely coming, and so, so what is impact investing? It's for-profit investing that also seeks to have a positive social impact, and the investors who are excited about it, um, which increasingly includes huge pools of capital, including the Rockefeller Foundation and BlackRock and Bain and Pension Fund, There's a lot of people who want to invest in these kinds of investments. They don't see a conflict in those two ends, but rather kind of two worthy ends that overlap in an interesting number of cases, and they really seek to double down in those cases. Some impacting investors, uh, may be willing to get a slightly lower, but still respectable return in exchange for knowing their investment is having a positive social impact. And Interestingly, I think some of the most promising impact investments are internet companies and specifically new platforms that provide opportunity for people to make money or save money or have opportunity that they otherwise wouldn't have had. And, you know, one really interesting early example was eBay, which brought a huge number out of poverty, just gave them an opportunity to make money in a low friction way where they didn't have to open a, you know, an offline store and could monetize some of their existing Um, you know, assets. And I think the last piece of the puzz…

AI assessment note: “It's for-profit investing that also seeks to have a positive social impact”

Q And in those rounds where it is super competitive, like data miner, how do you stand out? What's your kind of selling value add?

A That's a good question. You know, I think, um, in early stages, uh, of, of any company, founders, founders may look for a set of things, and they may have slightly different emphases, but, but I guess, I think on the whole, they, they're looking for kind of similar general things. One is they want someone who can really add value to their business, who can really move the needle for them, and startups generally need a lot more help in the early stages than when, you They're a rapidly growing, sizable company, you know, raising growth capital, where it's much more about valuation. But in the early days, they want help building a team. Dataminer really was eager to help, you know, build a world-class executive team. They had this great technology, but, um, they had not yet, um, sort of built a team to help take this to market, and they knew that what they had was very powerful. So they, that was one of the most important things they were looking for. Um, and, I think because I had worked with a variety of, of companies in New York that had built very successful businesses like the Guilt Group, Intent Media, um, they said, we want someone like that, someone who can help us, you know, um, hire great executives and just help us scale very fast in the early days. I think another element is they, they really want someone that understands their business and that they'd like to work wit…

AI assessment note: “help us hire great executives and just help us scale very fast in the early days”

Q And you mentioned Gilt, uh, just now, and Gilt, as we know, has a female founder in the fabulous Alexandra, and you've done a large amount to champion women in tech. However, we, and we often hear that women are, you know, disadvantaged in the inequalities in tech. Is that still the case for female founders? Is it harder to get VC funding, do you think, still?

A I do. You know, I think there's been a great deal of progress made. There's some phenomenal female, uh, founders, CEOs, um, senior executives, and, and really promising startups, and I think we're in the midst of a, of a sea change, but in direct answer to your question, I think it, it still is harder for female entrepreneurs to raise money, and it's sort of an uncomfortable truth in the industry, but I, I do think it's important to, to call out, um, I think there are a few reasons for that. I think, um, there's some bias, what I'd call kind of an old school bias that is disappearing as younger investors take the leadership positions in the industry, which, you know, worry about, hey, if women have children, or they're going to have children, how can they possibly be as productive as men? I actually married a female entrepreneur, and we have two kids, and she's just, uh, you know.

AI assessment note: “in direct answer to your question, I think it, it still is harder”

Q easily designed UI so you can Easily identify the most relevant and suitable candidates for your job in the shortest amount of time. Check them out at www.hiringscreen.com or tweet them at Hiring Screen RH. You have now arrived at your destination. Now, I'm so happy to have you on the show, and can you kick us off by telling us how you got it started in the venture industry?

A Sure. Uh, I got into the venture industry serendipitously and, and rather unexpectedly. Um, it's a funny story. I got an offer, uh, out of the blue to join a venture firm where I knew one of the partners, and I think for the sake of propriety, I probably shouldn't identify the firm, given the story. Time. Uh, I was working at the tech group, um, at Goldman Sachs, but when I told Goldman I was going to go, they got very upset at the firm for making the offer, particularly since this venture firm had poached two great people from Goldman's tech group before they approached me. Um, and Goldman basically said they had to draw a line in the sand and told the firm that if they hired me, they would stop working with them. Um, and the venture firm Told me that they thought they might be able to work out a compromise with Goldman over several months, and that the best thing I could do in the meantime was to get some other offers to show Goldman I was really going to leave. So I did, and I ended up finding a better offer, a more interesting offer, and I informed the venture firm that had been courting me that I was going to take the offer, and so I did, and I was off to the races, and that's how I became a venture capitalist, and I worked for eight years in Boston and then moved to New York because it was increasingly becoming the center of startup activity on the East Coast, and I've be…

AI assessment note: “I got into the venture industry serendipitously and, and rather unexpectedly.”

Q And how do valuations compare in New York compared to San Francisco?

A I think for companies that are working very well, um, there's no major difference. I think the, the companies that get the, the, the biggest valuations are companies that are working extraordinarily well. And I actually would add one thing, which is companies that capture the imagination of, um, of the investment community. Uh, with regard to their potential to disrupt huge existing industry and be very big. So Facebook and LinkedIn and Google all did that on the West Coast. I think, you know, looking at some of the leaders, uh, on the East Coast, I think, um, Dataminer certainly is an example of, of a company that has immense problems to disrupt lots of industries, and it got, it got a great valuation. It got sort of a West Coast valuation, and, and I think for very good reason. I think, you know, that was a smart investment by those By those, um, investors. So, you know, I think for companies that are working very well, it's not that different. I think for, um, earlier stage companies, maybe they're a little higher on the West Coast. I think partly that may result from the fact that if you look at the set of founders on the West Coast, many of them may come from, you know, extraordinarily pedigree networks from Facebook or Google. Um, you know, they may have deep domain expertise or functional expertise in the companies they've been at. So, um, Maybe a bit higher on the West …

AI assessment note: “for companies that are working very well, um, there's no major difference.”

Q And you mentioned Gilt, uh, just now, and Gilt, as we know, has a female founder in the fabulous Alexandra, and you've done a large amount to champion women in tech. However, we, and we often hear that women are, you know, disadvantaged in the inequalities in tech. Is that still the case for female founders? Is it harder to get VC funding, do you think, still?

A I do. You know, I think there's been a great deal of progress made. There's some phenomenal female, uh, founders, CEOs, um, senior executives, and, and really promising startups, and I think we're in the midst of a, of a sea change, but in direct answer to your question, I think it, it still is harder for female entrepreneurs to raise money, and it's sort of an uncomfortable truth in the industry, but I, I do think it's important to, to call out, um, I think there are a few reasons for that. I think, um, there's some bias, what I'd call kind of an old school bias that is disappearing as younger investors take the leadership positions in the industry, which, you know, worry about, hey, if women have children, or they're going to have children, how can they possibly be as productive as men? I actually married a female entrepreneur, and we have two kids, and she's just, uh, you know.

AI assessment note: “I do... it still is harder for female entrepreneurs to raise money”

Q And how do valuations compare in New York compared to San Francisco?

A I think for companies that are working very well, um, there's no major difference. I think the, the companies that get the, the, the biggest valuations are companies that are working extraordinarily well. And I actually would add one thing, which is companies that capture the imagination of, um, of the investment community. Uh, with regard to their potential to disrupt huge existing industry and be very big. So Facebook and LinkedIn and Google all did that on the West Coast. I think, you know, looking at some of the leaders, uh, on the East Coast, I think, um, Dataminer certainly is an example of, of a company that has immense problems to disrupt lots of industries, and it got, it got a great valuation. It got sort of a West Coast valuation, and, and I think for very good reason. I think, you know, that was a smart investment by those By those, um, investors. So, you know, I think for companies that are working very well, it's not that different. I think for, um, earlier stage companies, maybe they're a little higher on the West Coast. I think partly that may result from the fact that if you look at the set of founders on the West Coast, many of them may come from, you know, extraordinarily pedigree networks from Facebook or Google. Um, you know, they may have deep domain expertise or functional expertise in the companies they've been at. So, um, Maybe a bit higher on the West …

AI assessment note: “I think for companies that are working very well, um, there's no major difference.”

Q Absolutely. And I'd love to discuss your involvement with Dataminer now. Now, a huge congratulations to you on their latest hundred and thirty million dollar round. Um, can you tell us a little about Dataminer, how you got involved, what you saw in them, and the future for them?

A Sure. Dataminer is a really intellectually interesting company. First, let me describe what it does. Dataminer is in the business of real-time information discovery, and what that means is they have access to some of the largest real-time data sets online, and they're constantly adding additional data sets. The biggest and most significant of those data sets right now is Twitter. They have real-time access to the Twitter firehose, and What they do is, with all this data, is they look at the emerging digital signatures in the first milliseconds of events in the real world as they are starting to happen. It's an interesting characteristic that in today's world, events start to leave digital signatures in their very early moments, and so DataMiner sees those and figures out what the events are, how significant they are, and to whom they're relevant, so they effectively discover News before it's news. They, they discover market moving information before markets move. Um, someone once said the future is unevenly distributed. I think knowledge of the present is also unevenly distributed, and data miner is sort of like an x-ray vision that can see everywhere in the world, in virtually every sphere of human activity, um, what is happening as it happens. And they focus on financial markets, which are obviously interested in Uh, learning information, and by the way, this is all based on …

AI assessment note: “First, let me describe what it does. Dataminer is in the business of real-time information discovery”

Q Absolutely. And I'd love to discuss your involvement with Dataminer now. Now, a huge congratulations to you on their latest hundred and thirty million dollar round. Um, can you tell us a little about Dataminer, how you got involved, what you saw in them, and the future for them?

A Sure. Dataminer is a really intellectually interesting company. First, let me describe what it does. Dataminer is in the business of real-time information discovery, and what that means is they have access to some of the largest real-time data sets online, and they're constantly adding additional data sets. The biggest and most significant of those data sets right now is Twitter. They have real-time access to the Twitter firehose, and What they do is, with all this data, is they look at the emerging digital signatures in the first milliseconds of events in the real world as they are starting to happen. It's an interesting characteristic that in today's world, events start to leave digital signatures in their very early moments, and so DataMiner sees those and figures out what the events are, how significant they are, and to whom they're relevant, so they effectively discover News before it's news. They, they discover market moving information before markets move. Um, someone once said the future is unevenly distributed. I think knowledge of the present is also unevenly distributed, and data miner is sort of like an x-ray vision that can see everywhere in the world, in virtually every sphere of human activity, um, what is happening as it happens. And they focus on financial markets, which are obviously interested in Uh, learning information, and by the way, this is all based on …

AI assessment note: “First, let me describe what it does. Dataminer is in the business of real-time information”