Refinery VC

Today we're continuing with part two of the Man Behind the Mic conversation with our friend, Joe Kaiser. Joe is director at Mercato Partners, a private equity firm, where he leads their investment efforts in the Midwest, as well as their performance team. For part two, Joe asked my thoughts, advice, rules, principles, guidelines about how I approach venture capital.

Joe Kaiser

Director at Mercato Partners

S4 Ep 7. Man Behind the Mic Part 2: Interview by Joe Kaiser at Mercato Partners

About Us

Approach

Portfolio

Team

An exploration of how innovation frontiers are emerging in surprising places.Stay up to date with Fast Frontiers by <a href="http://eepurl.com/hbJORv" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">subscribing</a> to our newsletter!

Fast Frontiers

Today we're doing something different. This is our Man Behind the Mic episode where I'll be interviewed by my friend Joe Kaiser. Joe's a Director at Mercato Partners, a private equity firm where he leads the firm's investment efforts in the Midwest, as well as its performance team. A huge thank you goes out to Joe for coming up with this idea and giving us his time and thoughtful questions. He was kind enough to switch seats and put me in the hot seat for this interview. For part one, we're going to dive into why we started Fast Frontiers, my experience and journey as a CEO, operator, fund to funds manger and VC investor. And we'll also discuss the origin and thesis for Refinery Ventures.

S4 Ep 6. Man Behind the Mic Part 1: Interview by Joe Kaiser at Mercato Partners

Today we're talking with Adam Sharkawy. Adam is the co-founder and managing partner at Material Impact a venture fund located in Boston, Massachusetts. Material Impact focuses on deep tech innovation, and we share an investment in Folio Photonics. We get a bit geeked out on chaos and complexity theory, and nonlinear systems, and discuss that some of the most interesting innovations come from the convergence of technology and business models. And that's where the cool stuff happens. The biggest theme or so what I hope you take away from this conversation is that whether you're pulling technology and intellectual property out of research universities, or corporate innovation processes or startups, they're all hard to do well, but when done correctly can be extremely disruptive and successful.

Adam Sharkawy

Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Material Impact

S4 Ep 4. Adam Sharkawy: Material Impact

Today we're talking to Elaine Bryant. Elaine is a 20-year Air Force veteran and currently holds dual appointments as executive vice president for Aerospace and Defense at the Dayton Development Coalition and managing director for the Military and Federal Installation Sector at JobsOhio. In this episode, we're going to dive into how economic development activity relates to the military, as well as research and initiatives like the Air Force Research Lab, which are a treasure trove of uncommercialized technologies. The biggest theme or so what I hope you take away from this episode is that there is so much innovation available, you just need to know where to look. Our military has invested countless dollars in technology. There's so much to discover and cultivate in our own backyard, so let's go window shopping.

Elaine Bryant

Executive Vice President for Aerospace and Defense at the Dayton Development Coalition and Managing Director for the Military and Federal Installation Sector at JobsOhio

S4 Ep 3. Elaine Bryant: Dayton Development Coalition & Jobs Ohio

Today we're talking with Sarah Anderson, Founder and Partner of Vault Fund. We're going to dive into what makes a venture studio? Sarah will help us differentiate between a typical venture fund, venture studios, accelerators, and incubators. She dives deeper into the various venture studio models that we are seeing in the market and includes her thoughts on how a studio should be set up with fair and incentivized equity structures. The biggest theme or, so what? I hope you take away from this conversation is that venture studios are a unique and viable way to start companies by facilitating the zero to one stage company creation, backing experienced hyper-growth entrepreneurs with domain expertise.

Sarah Anderson 

Founding Partner at Vault Fund

S4 Ep 2. Sarah Anderson: Vault Fund

In this episode, we're talking with Jeff Bloomfield, founder and CEO of Braintrust. Braintrust helps individuals and companies transform their sales and marketing systems by understanding the power of neuroscience on everyday communication. In this episode, we're going to dive into the reasons why Jeff started Braintrust. The biggest theme, or so what I hope you can take away from this conversation is that it's all about communications. The determining factor of success for a person or an organization is how successful they communicate. If you can't communicate effectively, you're sunk, in every area of your life.

Jeff Bloomfield

CEO, Author, Speaker, Growth Expert, Brain Enthusiast

S4 Ep 1. Jeff Bloomfield: Braintrust

Fast Frontiers Podcast, S4 Ep 1. Jeff Bloomfield: Braintrust

Today we're talking with Alex Frommeyer, co-founder and CEO at Beam Dental in Columbus, Ohio. Beam Dental was founded in 2012 by three engineers at University of Louisville, who saw the opportunity to modernize the dental insurance industry by using technology. The first product was the Beam Brush, which was one of the earliest examples of the Internet of Things in healthcare. We had a great conversation about the power of OKRs, Objectives and Key Results. The important thing about OKRs is clearly stating your goals and intentions, and making sure it relates to every single person in your organization so that you can articulate and re-emphasize, and re-state, and reminding everyone, at all times, what they're doing and why they're doing it. If you want a high performance team, you need to master the art of OKRs.

Recent Episodes

SEASON 4

S4 Ep 7. Man Behind the Mic Part 2: Interview by Joe Kaiser at Mercato Partners

S4 Ep 6. Man Behind the Mic Part 1: Interview by Joe Kaiser at Mercato Partners

S4 Ep 4. Adam Sharkawy: Material Impact

S4 Ep 3. Elaine Bryant: Dayton Development Coalition & Jobs Ohio

S4 Ep 2. Sarah Anderson: Vault Fund

S4 Ep 1. Jeff Bloomfield: Braintrust

SEASON 3

S3 Ep 12. Alex Frommeyer: Beam Dental

About The Show

Fast Frontiers

Tim Schigel

Managing Partner at Refinery Ventures