Village Global Podcast
676 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 79 ratingsThe Village Global podcast takes you inside the world of venture capital and technology, featuring enlightening interviews with entrepreneurs, investors and tech industry leaders. Learn more at www.villageglobal.vc.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Requests For Startups: FinTech
June 27, 2018 12:00 - 45 minutes - 41.3 MBJoining Erik on this episode are Maia Bittner (@maiab), co-founder of Pinch, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), FinTech partner at 500 Startups. They go over the variety of sectors being disrupted by FinTech companies these days, including insurance, credit reporting, personal financial management, capital markets, financial planning, international finance and even banking in the developing world. Erik asks what kinds of opportunities Sheel and Maia see for founders and entrepreneurs as well as ...
Episode #25: The Future of Consumer Products
June 21, 2018 12:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBErik is joined by Nicole Quinn (@Nik_Quinn), Investing Partner at Lightspeed and Lee Edwards (@terronk), former CTO of Teespring and active angel investor. They explain why they’re bullish on consumer packaged goods startups and which industries they see startups disrupting in the future. They also discuss why they think there will be so much growth in the space, especially in e-commerce. They debate the relative importance of having a technically sophisticated founder in a CPG startup and...
Episode #24: The Future of Hardware and Robotics
June 14, 2018 12:00 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MBErik is joined by Eric Klein, partner at Lemnos VC, and Sankarshan Murthy (@sancartion), CEO and co-founder of Bumblebee Homes. They talk about trends in urbanization, housing and storage in America and why changing attitudes towards consumption present a huge opportunity for investors and founders alike. Sankarshan explains how what his team is working on at Bumblebee Homes will change how and where people choose to live. Eric talks about why he invested in Bumblebee, the other companies ...
Episode #23: The Future of Fertility with Tammy Sun and Afton Vechery
June 07, 2018 12:00 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBTammy Sun (@tammysun), CEO and co-founder of Carrot Fertility and Afton Vechery (@aaffttoonn), CEO and co-founder of Modern Fertility talk with Erik about this rapidly emerging space. They explain how they got started in the fertility space, give us a rundown of the corporate landscape as it stands at the moment and explain why the market is changing so quickly. They also give us some insight into why it's difficult to build a business in this space and what kinds of opportunities they would...
Episode #22: Democratizing Cryptocurrency Investing with Kendrick Nguyen and Andy Bromberg
May 24, 2018 12:00 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBKendrick Nguyen (@kendrickesq), CEO of Republic and Andy Bromberg (@andy_bromberg), CEO and co-founder of CoinList join Erik to talk about the changing landscape of investing in crypto. They explain how their companies will allow more people to invest in cryptocurrencies, will change how startups are funded, and will impact the broader securities markets. They discuss some of the challenges of securities regulation and how conventional investing will change with the rise of cryptocurrencie...
Episode #21: Online, Offline or Both? The Future of Direct to Consumer Women's Healthcare with Carolyn Witte and Hans Gangeskar
May 16, 2018 12:00 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBErik talks to Carolyn Witte (@carolynwitte), co-founder and CEO of asktia.com and Hans Gangeskar (@hansois), co-founder and CEO of Nurx. Carolyn and Hans explain how their companies are creating a new way for women to find healthcare. They recount how a new way of getting care has changed how women feel about their health. The two founders explain why their business models are different from one another, even though they are in similar verticals. They also talk about what their future roadm...
Episode #20: The State of Sexual Wellness Startups
April 23, 2018 12:00 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBErik talks to Polly Rodriguez (@polly_claire), co-founder of Unbound, Andrea Barrica (@abarrica), founder of O.school, and Gina Gutierrez (@Gina__Gutierrez), founder of Dipsea Stories, about the state of sexual wellness startups. Just a heads-up — due to the topic of the discussion, there is some adult language in this episode. These founders are on a mission to serve the half of the population that is currently not well served when it comes to sexual wellness. They explain the quirks of th...
Episode #19: How Technology Is Changing Drug Development
April 10, 2018 12:00 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBHost Erik Torenberg talks to Jo Varshney, founder of VeriSIM Life, a Village portfolio company, and Eric Stefanich, director and senior scientist at Genentech. They explain how VeriSIM is changing drug discovery and development and why more and more drugs are being developed "in silico." They also discuss how startups can work in harmony with big companies and how big pharma has become much more forward-thinking than it is usually given credit for. Erik asks what opportunities they would be ...
Episode #18: The Future of Drones with Adam Bry of Skydio
March 01, 2018 13:00 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBErik talks to Adam Bry (@adampbry), co-founder and CEO of Skydio, a company that designs and manufactures autonomous drones. Adam gives us a rundown on where the company is at right now, how it got there and what we should be expecting in the drone space in the future. Erik asks where Adam would be investing if he was running a venture firm focused on the space and what potential roadblocks to the rise of the drones could be. Adam explains what some of the other companies in the space are wor...
Episode 17: Rethinking The Education To Employment Paradigm with Will Houghteling and Kara Nortman
February 23, 2018 13:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBErik is joined by Will Houghteling (@willhoughteling), founder of Strive, a competency-based marketplace, and Kara Nortman (@karanortman), the first investor in Strive and partner at Upfront Ventures. Will explains why he started Strive and how the educational needs of the middle 50% of American post-secondary students aren’t being met at the moment. Kara and Will discuss the merits of new forms of career-oriented education that have emerged in the past decade, like bootcamps, income-sharing ...
Episode #16: The Present and Future of Hardware with Shilpi Kumar and Seth Winterroth
February 06, 2018 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBErik talks to Shilpi Kumar (@_shilpikumar), who helps Village Global find hardware investments and Seth Winterroth (@sethwinterroth), partner at Eclipse Venture Capital. They explain how hardware has been changing over the past several years and where they think it's going. They also explain why hardware devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home are being sold at a loss and what might be enabled when machines are able to speak to each other more efficiently. They also talk about some of the co...
Episode #15: Rebecca Kaden of Union Square Ventures on Healthcare, Fintech and Venture Firms
January 30, 2018 13:00 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBRebecca Kaden (@rebeccak46) recently joined Union Square Ventures in in her hometown of New York City as a partner. She and Erik (@eriktorenberg) talk about why she joined USV and the three “waves” of investment theses for the firm. They discuss the unique dynamics in a partnership versus a company. She talks about her recent investment in Nurx, a company that specializes in delivery of birth control to women who might otherwise not be able to access it. Rebecca also talks about why network e...
Episode #14: How To Recruit, Assess, and Retain The Best People For Your Startup With Keith Rabois and Jack Altman
January 25, 2018 13:00 - 1 hour - 79.3 MBErik talks to Keith Rabois (@rabois), Managing Director at Khosla Ventures and Jack Altman (@jaltma), CEO and co-founder of Lattice. Keith and Jack draw on their experience working at high-growth start-ups to explain how to attract the best people to your startup. They discuss how and when to hire and fire when you’re running an early stage company, the parallels between sports and work, and how to pick a co-founder. Jack says that he can tell a lot about a startup just by walking around the ...
Episode #13: How To Disrupt The Insurance Industry With Kyle Nakatsuji of Clearcover
January 23, 2018 13:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBKyle (@kylenakatsuji) talks to Erik about his company, Clearcover, which plans to offer a new way to buy insurance. Kyle has extensive experience in the insurance industry as an employee, investor and founder, and describes the ins and outs of the insurance industry to us. He explains why insurance companies spend such a big percentage of their revenue on advertising and the antiquated way that most insurance is sold these days. That leads to a discussion of how insurance companies and the in...
Episode #12: How To Build A Startup In The Consumer Fitness Space with Holly Shelton and Selina Tobaccowala
January 18, 2018 13:00 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBSelina Tobaccowala (@selinato) of Gixo and Holly Shelton (@hlshelton) of MoveWith join Erik for a discussion of the state of consumer fitness apps. The Gixo and MoveWith apps bring fitness to you. Selina and Holly break down the successes of a few other companies in the space and talk about what the business models look like for both online and offline fitness. Erik asks why it’s been so difficult to build a business in this space and they discuss the difficulty of behavior change and how to ...
Episode #11: Finding a Niche in the Consumer Social Space with Winnie’s Sara Mauskopf and Anne Halsall
January 16, 2018 13:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBErik talks to Sara Mauskopf (@sm) and Anne Halsall (@annekate) about Winnie, the “companion app for parents” which Erik calls the “most slept-on consumer social company today.” Sara and Anne tell us about Winnie’s unique combination of a community and a utility. They talk about how they bootstrapped the company to where it is today and their unique approach to company culture. They also discuss how they approach social media and play Long-Short, where Erik names a company and Sara and Anne sa...
Episode #10: The Future of Access with Omni's Tom McLeod and Ryan Delk
January 11, 2018 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MBErik talks to Tom McLeod (@tmcleod3) and Ryan Delk (@delk) of Omni about the future of access. Omni provides physical storage but is also a marketplace, allowing you to rent what you need on-demand or make extra money renting out the things you’re not using. Tom and Ryan recount their entrepreneurial journey so far and what their plans are for the company in the future. They talk about the changing patterns of consumption by millennials and how those may change consumer goods in the future. T...
Episode #9: The State of Consumer Social with Josh Elman
January 09, 2018 13:00 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBErik and his co-host for this episode, Abie Katz of August Capital, interview Josh Elman (@joshelman), partner at Greylock Partners. Josh recounts the twists and turns of his career and how they led to him becoming a venture capitalist. He talks about the unique approach he takes when working with founders and how that has impacted the outcome of his investments. He tells us why you so infrequently find truly visionary founders and how Greylock thinks about their seed stage Discovery Fund. Jo...
Episode #8: Investing in Machine Learning Startups with Ash Fontana
January 03, 2018 13:00 - 54 minutes - 50.4 MBErik interviews Ash Fontana (@ashfontana) of Zetta Venture Partners with his co-host for this episode, Abie Katz of August Capital. They talk about how Ash got his fund started and how and why he structured it the way he did. They discuss how to manage growth in a venture fund and the relative importance of being a recognizable brand in the space. They ask Ash what he looks for in a machine learning startup and Ash explains why sometimes it’s better to stay small. He also talks about how and ...
Episode #7: The Future of VR and AR and How To Invest In It with Amitt Mahajan and Abie Katz
December 27, 2017 13:00 - 43 minutes - 39.6 MBErik and his co-host for this episode, Abie Katz of August Capital, interview Amitt Mahajan (@amittm) of Presence Capital. He talks about the future of both VR and AR, what kinds of companies he’s been investing in and the many novel applications of VR in the enterprise setting. He tells us whether he thinks AR or VR will have a bigger impact on the world and tells us about some of the more interesting advances in the technology as well as what might be coming in the future. He also discusses...
Episode #6: Consumer Social with Donnie Dinch, Michael Galpert and Greg Isenberg
December 21, 2017 13:00 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MBErik (@eriktorenberg) sits down with Donnie Dinch (@donnie), Michael Galpert (@msg) and Greg Isenberg (@gregisenberg) to discuss the state of consumer social today. They talk about why people call them crazy to try to build something in this sector today and why it’s like “walking up a downward escalator.” They dissect the uneasy relationship between the big players and the smaller companies in the space and why you need to “build with one eye over your shoulder.” They also discuss the emergi...
Episode #5: The State of Biotech with Dylan Morris and Cain McClary
December 19, 2017 05:48 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBThis episode is all about the state of biotech, with Dylan Morris of Charles River Ventures and Cain McClary of KdT Ventures. They discuss the difference in incentives when investing in biotech compared to more traditional venture capital investments and why the timelines for investments in biotech are so different compared to when most venture capitalists expect a return. They explain their respective investing theses and talk about what kinds of opportunities there are for startups in the s...
Episode #4 - How To Build A Digital Health Company with Malay Gandhi and Christine Lemke
December 14, 2017 11:00 - 1 hour - 58.8 MBErik talks with Malay Gandhi and Christine Lemke about the state of innovation in healthcare today, why it’s so difficult to build a company in the space, the blind spots that entrepreneurs and investors from outside the sector have, how to truly change behavior and what opportunities in healthcare Malay and Christine see. Malay Gandhi is an active angel investor in early stage, health-focused startups and advises a number of leading health tech companies. He serves as an EIR at Greylock Pa...
Episode #3: The Future of the Music Industry with Aston Motes, Parker Thompson and Ed Aten
December 13, 2017 06:00 - 1 hour - 66.4 MBThis episode is all about the future of music. Erik sat down with Parker Thompson, Aston Motes and Ed Aten to discuss how music has been regulated in the past and how that might change in the future, the argument for why copyright is a good thing for music, how blockchain might change the industry, why streaming music is a terrible business and what the music industry might look like ten years from now. Ed is CEO of Merchbar, Parker is partner at AngelList and 500 Startups and Aston was the f...
Episode #2: How Digital Currency Will Transform The World with Balaji Srinivasan
December 12, 2017 11:00 - 52 minutes - 48.5 MBIn this episode, Erik interviews Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) on cryptocurrencies, the web, building a company, identity, government, and the future in general. They explore the implications of cryptocurrencies on a variety of industries and talk about how society and the world of work might be transformed. Balaji Srinivasan is CEO and co-founder of Earn.com and Board Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He has two Master's degrees and a PhD from Stanford, where he occasionally teaches. Check u...
Episode #1: Ryan Hoover and David Spinks on Communities
December 11, 2017 05:08 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBRyan Hoover, CEO and founder of Product Hunt and David Spinks, CEO and founder of CMX Media talk all things community with Village co-founder and partner, host Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg). They talk about creating a business around a community, the differences between communities online and in real life, the pitfalls that have befallen some online communities and how to keep a company focused on its community as it expands. Ryan Hoover (@rrhoover) is founder of Product Hunt (sold to Ange...