Welcome to Venture Voice, a podcast that explores how entrepreneurs build their businesses and live their lives. We're posting audio shows of our conversations on this site, along with notes on each interview. Enjoy!
VV Show #49 - Rafat Ali of paidContent and contentNext
 |
Attention entrepreneurs dealing with the current economic downturn: This interview is for you. After working as a journalist for Jason Calacanis at Silicon Alley Reporter, Rafat Ali ended up broke in a market with a dearth of employment opportunities. To try to find a new job, Rafat created paidContent.org as an "interactive resume." Luckily, no one hired him. From these humble beginnings, Rafat bootstrapped his blog holding company, ContentNext Media, for four years before taking a small investment from famed media investor Alan Patricof in June 2006. From its inception paidContent has doubled revenues each year and was recently acquired by UK-based Guardian Media Group for a rumored $30 million. Listen in as Rafat outlines the past, present, and future of online media, while sharing his war stories from another uncertain economic time.
Continue reading "VV Show #49 - Rafat Ali of paidContent and contentNext"
Posted by Greg Galant on Jul 23, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | View blog reactions
VV Show #48 - Frank Addante of The Rubicon Project
 |
Whether working with market trends or against them, Frank Addante has found entrepreneurial success. Before he was 29 years old, one of Frank's companies went public and two were acquired. At his worse, he returned capital to investors. Suffering from serial entrepreneurship, Frank left the Illinois Institute of Technology just four classes shy of his degree. His companies range from an early search engine to a Sequoia Capital-backed enterprise email solution. Now Frank aspires to be a web publisher’s best friend with his new ad network optimization service that he says is boosting their clients' revenues by 30-300%. Listen in as Frank details his ongoing entrepreneurial journey.
Continue reading "VV Show #48 - Frank Addante of The Rubicon Project"
Posted by Greg Galant on Apr 7, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (9) | View blog reactions
VV Show #47 - Tom Perkins of Kleiner Perkins
 |
The name Tom Perkins is now almost synonymous with venture capital, but it's clear that he cut his teeth as an entrepreneur. Educated at MIT and Harvard, Perkins first made his mark by managing the initial growth of Hewlett-Packard’s computer business while simultaneously inventing the first cheap and reliable laser. The company he built around the laser, University Laboratories, made him independently wealthy and allowed for the creation of Kleiner Perkins, one of the most successful venture capital firms in existence. Kleiner Perkins (now Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) has funded a wide range of well known and wildly successful companies including Google, AOL, Genentech, Sun Microsystems, Compaq, and Tandem Computers. Though Tom's wowed the business press for much of his career, later in life he's gained national attention for having a key role in 2006 Hewlett-Packard board controversy, briefly marrying Danielle Steel, and building the world's largest privately owned sailing yacht. Tom has recently stepped back into the media spotlight by publishing a memoir called Valley Boy: The Education of Tom Perkins
. Listen in as he discusses his journey from New York to Boston to Silicon Valley, the creation of Kleiner Perkins, and his advice for the entrepreneurs of the future.
Continue reading "VV Show #47 - Tom Perkins of Kleiner Perkins"
Posted by Greg Galant on Dec 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (10) | View blog reactions
VV Show #46 - Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp
 |
Jeremy Stoppelman is the co-founder and CEO of Yelp, a site where users can write and share reviews of local businesses. Everyone's now a restaurant critic. However, local reviews were not the original focus, but just one of several features in the earlier versions of the site. Noticing the growth of this buried feature, Yelp re-tooled the site around reviews and hasn't looked back since. Does this story sound familiar? Jeremy's the former VP of Engineering at PayPal, which also had to drastically alter its business early in its life. Listen in to hear Jeremy's thoughts on growing a local enterprise, giving users and identity, and how to recognize and act upon the need for change.
Continue reading "VV Show #46 - Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp"
Posted by Greg Galant on Jun 24, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (6) | View blog reactions
VV Show #45 - Kevin Ryan of Panther Express, ShopWiki and Music Nation
 |
Not many entrepreneurs have a motor like Kevin Ryan's. Kevin is best known for his work as CEO at the on-line advertising firm DoubleClick, which he grew from a 20 person start-up to the largest Internet company in New York at the height of the dot-com boom. After escaping the ensuing bust in an arguably improved strategic position, the company has since changed hands twice. In June 2005, the company was sold to the private equity firm of Hellman and Friedman for $1.1 billion and has made headlines yet again with its recent acquisition by Google for an astonishing $3.1 billion. Yet, this success has not slowed Kevin one bit. Since departing DoubleClick, he has already launched three start-ups, with plans for a fourth this summer. Listen in, as Kevin describes his DoubleClick experiences in both boom and bust, outlines his new start-ups, and explains why now is as good a time as ever to start a company, especially in the Big Apple.
Continue reading "VV Show #45 - Kevin Ryan of Panther Express, ShopWiki and Music Nation"
Posted by Greg Galant on Apr 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (6) | View blog reactions
VV Show #44 - Venture Voice Startup Workshop Coverage (part 2)
 |
Marketing a startup is tricky business. Every entrepreneur faces the dilemma between allocating time to improving the product and marketing the product. If the two can be mixed just right, then perhaps sterile marketing can go viral. We tackle that issue in part 2 of 3 of our very own Venture Voice Startup Workshop coverage in New York City. David Hornik of August Capital leads the session, but he doesn’t finish uninterrupted as the entrepreneurs on the panel jump in.
Continue reading "VV Show #44 - Venture Voice Startup Workshop Coverage (part 2)"
Posted by Greg Galant on Mar 9, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | View blog reactions
VV Show #43 - Fred Seibert of Frederator Studios and Next New Networks
 |
Before the rise of the Internet, cable TV was the new form of distribution remaking the entertainment business. Life-long entrepreneur and former jazz producer Fred Seibert pioneered that field, and is known in the industry for branding MTV (remember their ever-changing animated logo) and Nickelodeon (remember Nick-at-Nite). While he was figuring out what to do next, Ted Turner hired him to be president of the then-struggling Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio. Fred turned the famous studio around and kept his hand in the cable business until some friends dragged him into the Internet business. He now runs Frederator Studios which produces several cable and Internet TV shows. He also just launched a new well-funded startup called Next New Networks to create Internet TV networks.
Continue reading "VV Show #43 - Fred Seibert of Frederator Studios and Next New Networks"
Posted by Greg Galant on Jan 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (9) | View blog reactions
VV Show #42 - Simon Daniel of USBcell
 |
The battery is an afterthought for most inventors. All the fun seems to be in developing a device, not in powering it. But when was the last time you cursed your phone, camera or podcast player because it ran out of batteries? Simon Daniel got fed up with his batteries, and decided to do something about it. He invented the USBcell, a standard sized battery (yes, it comes in AA) that can recharge using any USB port. This isn’t his first invention. Previously, he invented the folding keyboard and licensed the technology. This time he’s bringing the USBcell to market himself through the company he founded called Moixa (axiom spelled backwards). Though this might force you to think differently, don’t worry, we won’t play the podcast backwards.
Continue reading "VV Show #42 - Simon Daniel of USBcell"
Posted by Greg Galant on Jan 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4) | View blog reactions
