Refinery VC

In this episode, we’re bringing you my conversation with Scott Dorsey, Co-founder and managing partner at High Alpha, a venture studio in Indianapolis, and Former CEO and co-founder of ExactTarget which was acquired by Salesforce in 2013 for over $2.5B

15 - Scott Dorsey

Today we're bringing you my conversation with Bruce Vojak, researcher, author, and managing director of Breakthrough Innovation Advisors. We're going to dive into some of Bruce's learnings that came out of his writing, Serial Innovators. Bruce and his coauthors immerse themselves in the problems of a people view of innovation, rather than a process and structure or cultural view of innovation. We're also going to dive into the concept of VUCA, V-U-C-A, which stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, a term that came out of the military. It's a concept that is invaluable to help you navigate and excel, even in the middle of chaos.

Bruce Vojak is an author researcher and consultant. He coauthored, Serial Innovators, How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms. Bruce also serves on the board of directors at Medtronics, the advisor board of JV Partners and on the board of Micron Industries. He consults with major corporations like Procter and Gamble, and is the founder of Breakthrough Innovation Advisors. Bruce has also served as associate dean and adjunct professor at the college of engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Early in his career he was director of advanced technology for Motorola's non-semiconductor component business, where he held research and business development positions. Bruce has a bachelor's of highest honors, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from University of Chicago.

Bruck Vojak 

Researcher, Author, and Managing Director of Breakthrough Innovation Advisors

S2 Ep 9: Bruce Vojak

Today we're bringing you my conversation with Kevin Maney, advisor of Category Design and co-author of Play Bigger. In this episode, we're going to dive into the learnings that came out of writing Play Bigger, a book that I recommend to all of our startups. Kevin talks about how to define and own a category, as well as the timeline of successful companies that ultimately go public. So what is category design? While most companies start out with a product idea, Kevin tells us successful companies start out by designing the need and the category. So this involves asking a really simple question. What problems do you really want to solve? Spend the time defining the problem, finding that category and defining it, and aligning your team to help drive the process. If you set that North Star early, you have a better chance of attracting customers and convincing others that your journey is worth it. Ultimately you can become a category king.

Kevin Maney is a journalist, author, and co-founder of Category Design Advisors. He has also been a contributor to Newsweek, Fortune, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Strategy and Business, Harvard Business Review, CNN, ABC News, and others.

Kevin Maney

Author, Columnist, Commentator, Advisor

S2 Ep 8: Kevin Maney

Today we're bringing you my conversation with Mackey Craven, partner at OpenView. In this episode, we'll dive into Mackey's exploration mindset and how his academic experience impacted his work in venture capital. And the biggest theme that I want you to take away from this today is the concept made famous by Jeff Bezos called disagree and commit. It's something that's used often among partners in venture firms. Not everybody agrees with an investment idea, but once the investment's made everybody is pulling in the same direction. This is a concept that is very useful and helpful in any organizational setting, so I hope you can find some things to take away from this discussion.

Mackey focuses on enterprise infrastructure and data-driven application software at OpenView. Prior to joining OpenView, Mackey was an associate at Bessemer Venture Partners focusing on investments in cloud computing, consumer internet, and data infrastructure. At Bessemer, Mackey was a board observer at Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon, Zapier, Xtime, acquired by Cox Automotive, and Apperian acquired by Arxan, and was involved with Bessemer's investments in Infinio, Liaison, and Antigua. Mackey began his career in research and teaching positions at the Sloan School of Management and in the departments of physics and biology at MIT where he co-founded BioVolt, a company focused on designing low cost microbial fuel cells for use in the developing world. He has also served as an independent scientific consultant to Continuum Energy Technologies and analyzed pipe and SPAC opportunities for Hudson Bay Capital Management. Mackey joined OpenView in 2013 and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2017.

Mackey Craven

Partner at OpenView

S2 Ep 7: Mackey Craven

Today we're bringing you my conversation with Michelle McBane, managing director of StandUp Ventures in Toronto, Canada. In this episode, we're going to dive into the origin of StandUp Ventures, which was formed to address the issue that, without many female founders around, there's a belief that you can't be what you can't see. We're also going to talk about what makes the Toronto and Canadian ecosystems different and unique in terms of the economic benefits with R&D tax credits, and the growing density of talent and engagement among corporations and universities.

Michelle is passionate about working with amazing technology entrepreneurs. As the managing director of Standup Ventures, she leads investments in early stage technology companies led or co-led by women founders. Michelle is a skilled business professional with over 25 years of combined operational and venture capital experience. Her background includes 20 years of venture capital investing as well as sales and marketing roles in both engineering and scientific industries. 

Michelle McBane

Managing Director at StandUp Ventures

S2 Ep 6: Michelle McBane

Today we're bringing you my conversation with Baiju Shah, Senior Fellow for Innovation at the Cleveland Foundation, where he focuses on catalyzing strategic initiatives for the region, including serving as the leader of the Cleveland Innovation Project. We're going to dive into what Baiju sees as the gaps in the Midwest and how he's working to combat these through his work with the Cleveland Innovation Project, which includes setting expectations and identifying opportunities to bring high growth and innovation to the region through three sectors of focus, next-generation healthcare, smart manufacturing, and water technologies.

Seasoned executive, entrepreneur, and investor with 20 years of experience in building life science technology companies, innovation platforms, and strategic alliances, from start-up phase through sustaining organizations and exits. Significant public company, private firm, and nonprofit organization board leadership and involvement through founding, growth, and turnaround situations, and substantial engagement with public agencies and officials. Frequent speaker and commentator on innovation models. Broadly networked in life sciences sector including venture capital firms, large companies, research institutions, disease foundations, and impact investors.

Baiju Shah

Senior Fellow for Innovation at the Cleveland Foundation

S2 Ep 5: Baiju Shah

Today we're bringing you my conversation with Noor Sweid, Founder and General Partner at Global Ventures in Dubai. Noor has a very impressive background having founded, scaled, exited, and taken a company public in various ventures. Her passion is solving big problems and opening up opportunities to venture capital for entrepreneurs throughout the Middle East region. Her fund, Global Ventures, was founded in 2018 and focuses on enterprise B2B and digital health. They closed their first fund in April 2020 of $50 million to invest in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Noor is passionate about enabling disruptive technology companies and their emerging market founders to solve real problems while changing the world with measurable impact. Noor is a founder, investor, and operator. Identified by Forbes magazine as one of the “World’s Top 50 Women in Tech”, Noor's previous roles include CIO at The Dubai Future Foundation, and founder of ZenYoga studio chain (acquired by Cedarbridge). Furthermore, Noor was the first Arab woman to scale, IPO and operate a public company in the MENA region, listing Depa on the NASDAQ Dubai and the London Stock Exchange (DEPA:DU) for US $1.1. billion in April 2008.

Noor Sweid

General Partner at Global Ventures

S2 Ep 4: Noor Sweid

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15 - Scott Dorsey

15 - Scott Dorsey

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