Ep. 025 – Alex Baker – Partner at Relay Ventures, says their differentiation comes from their CEOs & the 60+ portfolio companies they invested in, but thinks almost all startup companies over spend about at least 25%
Alex joined Relay Ventures in 2008, after eleven years of management consulting with global credit card and payment companies.
Summary: Alex joined Relay in 2008, bringing a consulting background specialized in financial services. Prior to his experiences at BearingPoint and PwC Consulting, Alex studied at the Schulich School of Business (York University). With Relay, he works with mobile-focused software and hardware entrepreneurs across a variety of industries. He is also an active part of the venture capital community in Canada and abroad as a Kauffman Fellow, as well as an advisor, and a frequent speaker/panelist.
Current: Alex’s background in strategy and finance lends well to his roles overseeing Relay Ventures’ investments in a broad range of mobile platform and connected device companies.
Location: Toronto
Ep. 024 – Russell Rothstein – didn’t understand how people wouldn’t book anything (like restaurants, hotels, etc.) without review sites but businesses make decisions about technology without reviews of their peers. So, he founded IT Central Station, and led the change of a 3 trillion dollars industry
Russell Rothstein is founder and CEO of IT Central Station, the leading product review site for enterprise technology. Before founding IT Central Station, Russell worked in senior product roles at enterprise tech vendors Nolio (acquired by CA) and OPNET Technologies (acquired by Riverbed). He was co-founder and CEO of Zettapoint (acquired by EMC), and was co-founder of Open Sesame (acquired by Bowne/RR Donnelley). Russell received a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University, an MS in Technology and Policy from MIT, and an MS in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Follow Russell on Twitter @RussRothsteinIT (11,000+ followers).
Ep. 023 – My biggest failures with customers
Ep. 022 – Elizabeth Scherle – Co-Founder and President of Influenster, got to the critical point of Go Big or Go Home, they took the risk and this single decision made the whole difference for Influenster’s breakthrough.
Elizabeth Scherle is the Co-Founder and President of Influenster, the product discovery and reviews platform that enables socially-savvy consumers to find new products and get advice to make informed purchases.
With a community of over 4 million members, these digital influencers have written over 18 million reviews on over 2 million products, spreading the word all over their social media networks.
Originally from Henderson, IA, Elizabeth received her B.A. in Marketing from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
Ep. 021 – Christoph Dahn has chosen Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote – ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’ and decided to dedicate his work life as digital marketer to helping Green, Fair and Ethical companies succeed.
As a cofounder, brand strategist and sustainable business specialist at Greenblut Christoph Dahn helps GOOD green, sustainable, and ethical brands, companies and services to succeed with Digital Marketing and E Commerce.
Christoph loves to travel and to speak with people he can learn from. And that’s why he runs the Podcast Greenblut FM. He’s roots are in the fashion business where he started his business life 30 years ago. In 2005 after a career with conventional brands like Calvin Klein and others, he decided to dedicate his work life on helping Green, Fair and Ethical companies succeed.
Christoph has created and run 5 different businesses, some more successful than others, and believes that he has learned just as much—if not more—from the failures than the successes. And he just loves to help GOOD companies to grow through the web.