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Guest Rick Grinnell is the Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies in AI and frontier software technologies. Grinnell is one of the most reputed cybersecurity investors in venture capital land. For the last 21 years, he’s been investing in the various evolutions of security, storage, and SaaS-based startups out of his home base in the Boston area. He’s become such a local staple in the Boston innovation ecosystem that if you’re in venture capital and ever make your way to Boston, it’s an absolute must that you meet him--not simply out of business reasons but out of the plain fact that he’s one of the most interesting, multifaceted characters you could ever meet in venture capital. Grinnell is someone who defies categorization. If you get to know him a little more, you’ll learn that he’s a phenom on the pipe organ and skilled at enough instruments to form a one-man band if he really wanted. Check out his LinkedIn page, and you’ll see not just the standard listing of past roles and accomplishments, but a bio populated with his current music playlist: Twenty One Pilots, Alan Walker, Michael Franti, Sharon Jones, and the Dap-Kings. In fact, it was his passion for music--specifically a fascination with the creation of digital sounds through electronics--that prompted him to study electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. While Grinnell is a venture capitalist by title and reputation nowadays, he very much remains the same essential spirit as before: a lover of great music, a self-described tech “nerd” and a gravitational center for those around him.

Guest Russell Follansbee leads Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) enterprise software team in New England, which counts roughly 60 percent of VC-backed startups in the Greater Boston region as clients. He and his team help enterprise software companies, typically post-series A funding, to more efficiently achieve scale. While his experience ranges across industries, Follansbee specializes in the cybersecurity industry, a technology cluster in Boston that is driving global innovation. Since joining SVB in 2009, Follansbee has worked with high-growth innovators at all life stages, from pre-seed startups to billion dollar juggernauts. This experience has afforded him deep insights into patterns of success and failure, making him a valuable resource to founders and C-level executives. Follansbee lives in Boston with his wife and two kids. In his free time, he serves on the Rising Leaders board of BUILD Greater Boston, an organization that calls on the tenets of entrepreneurship to help youth in underserved communities succeed in high school, college and beyond.

Michael Caron is the founder and CEO of Get Burly, which organizes and creates custom fitness programs and team building retreats. WIth more than 40 seasons of coaching under his belt, Caron fosters a team of elite level coaches that push individuals and groups to overcome adversity. Caron is an elite coach in every sense of the concept. He is a Spartan SGX certified coach. He earned the Navy Seal Inspired Sealfit Basic Training Certification. He is also a certified Unbeatable Mind Coach and through performance coaching services is able to collaborate with individuals from all walks of life in the process of overcoming obstacles in pursuit of their goals and missions. Caron has also traveled extensively. He traveled the world through the Semester at Sea Program, following that up by participating in Teach For America in Houston, Texas. While strongly identifying with the struggles and hardships he witnessed, he decided to continue his passion for learning and education by attaining a Masters Degree in Education. Combining his experiences, education and certifications, Michael has developed a transformative and integrated approach to developing strength in mind, body, and spirit with Get Burly, which has worked with an impressive list of organizations, including SealFit, Ben Greenfield Fitness Systems, Yancy Camp, Spartan DekaFit, the Army National Guard, Spartan Race, SWAT Academy leadership and many more.

Guest Jordan Staab is the CEO of SmarterTravel, an industry leader in online travel with a travel media portfolio including Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Family Vacation Critic, Oyster, SmarterTravel, and WhatToPack. As the story goes with most entrepreneurial ventures, Staab’s journey in building SmarterTravel endured various pivots, twists and turns to get to where it is today. The company is flourishing but Staab will be the first to tell you that this was not always the case. With Staab at the helm, SmarterTravel empowers 7 million unique travelers each month through engaging content, innovative technology, and strategic partnerships to help them find the right trip at the right price. The company’s success was rewarded in September 2021 with a $9.5 million series B funding round co-led by Link Ventures and Second Alpha. Staab was previously the VP of Revenue at Cognius, and later became CRO when it spun out of Link Ventures’ incubator CogoLabs. When Jordan saw that Cognius was able to predict patterns in travel consumer behavior, Staab co-founded Hopjump. That company started out in 2018 as a digital marketing agency that focused on partnering with brands to develop user acquisition campaigns. Staab and his team went on to launch their first product in January 2020 and saw 60,000 members join in the first few months. Staab was on a joyride that seemingly had no end, then the COVID-19 global pandemic took the world by storm and brought so much momentum, potential, and belief to an immediate halt. Staab, along with the entire population, had one option, and one option only, PIVOT. Hopjump paused their travel product and focused on content. Staab then learned through industry contacts that TripAdvisor was looking to sell a number of their travel properties, many of which he was familiar with. He saw this as an immense opportunity for Hopjump, and purchased all of the properties, one of which was SmarterTravel. Since that name closely aligned with Hopjump’s purpose and goals, the company adopted that name and in September of 2021, announced funding and Staab’s bump to CEO. A global pandemic was nowhere to be found in Staab’s playbook, but rest assured staying agile and nimble to whatever life throws at him, surely was. Find out how Staab not only stayed afloat, but flourished in one of the most challenging times the industry has ever seen in this week’s episode.

Guest Cam Brown is the founder and CEO of KingFish, a Boston-based marketing agency set to celebrate its 20-year anniversary in November 2021. Brown has developed a hybrid agency model which combines a full-time staff of strategists, account executives and designers with a database of hundreds of subject matter experts (SMEs) to create custom content solutions for its clients. Perhaps most impressively, Brown personally oversees the relationships with the majority of KingFish SMEs. He brings over 30 years of marketing, digital, video, virtual & live events and advertising experience with industry leaders such as Ziff Davis Media, Arnold Advertising (Havas) and The Robb Report. While at Ziff Davis, Brown founded and headed their launch custom media business unit at the company. Brown also serves as a volunteer with the Cummings Foundation Sustaining Grant division, working to understand the issues local communities are facing, identifying the most promising and effective nonprofits to fund, and strengthening relationships with beneficiaries. He is also on the Advisory Board of Give Us Your Poor, an organization that brings together the latest research, multimedia, celebrities, citizens, homeless people, and partner organizations to help end homelessness. And recently, Brown was elected onto the Topsfield Select Board for a three year term. Brown is also a sought out strategic advisor to the investment and venture capital community, advising emerging companies on their business models and communications strategies.

Guest Guy Hudson is a marketing programs manager in the Boston office of ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: ZI), a global go-to-market enterprise SaaS leader. Hudson caught our attention on LinkedIn where he’s posted several inspiring messages, including an official ZoomInfo corporate video he recorded for Juneteenth. Unsurprisingly, ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck recently came in at number eight on Business Insider's list of the best CEOs of large companies ranked by BIPOC employees. Hudson’s story is fascinating, and his journey is a worldly one. He was born in Liberia, and at the age of 7, he moved to Methuen, MA where he spent the remainder of his childhood. At Methuen High School, Hudson was a soccer player and star track athlete, eventually earning a track scholarship to attend the University of Memphis where he graduated with a degree in Sports Management. He has matured into an example of a modern marketer that is both a wide-ranging generalist and savvy specialist. Thanks to the digital marketing skills he acquired early in his career at Boston-based Acquia, Hudson secured a job with the Phoenix Suns. It was with the Suns that Hudson honed his craft, helping bring the NBA franchise into the digital marketing age. Hudson oversaw the Suns’ embrace of a CRM and then led the team’s deployment of email marketing and database management programs. His story only gets more interesting the more you hear. The Servideo brothers had the honor of jointly interviewing Hudson, and in the process, we learned so much more about our friend from Methuen. On the podcast, you’ll hear him share a story about living in Liberia amidst a civil war, and being scared for his life with soldiers outside his home. You’ll hear his honest thoughts on people needing to “walk the walk” instead of just “talking the talk” when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. You’re in for a real treat.

Guest Aisha Chottani is a former McKinsey consultant turned thriving entrepreneur. After a stint at Harvard Business School, and amidst a pandemic, Chottani founded her company Moment, a natural botanical and adaptogen beverage that aims to bottle the feeling of meditation in a can. Chottani is a heart-driven leader on a mission to help people more easily achieve mindfulness. At no additional cost to consumers, Moment provides content and interactive programming to help people meditate more, gain mindfulness, and ultimately, improve their overall wellness. Moment also donates one percent of revenue to help at-risk youth. We had an opportunity to speak with Chottani as she was preparing to celebrate Moment’s one year anniversary.

Guest Mike Salguero is the founder and CEO of ButcherBox, a Boston-based meat brand that delivers high quality, humanely raised meat to consumers across the country. He founded ButcherBox in 2015 as a hobby, but quickly solved the need to increase access to high-quality, humanely raised protein. Prior to ButcherBox, Salguero founded CustomMade, a marketplace for consumers to commission custom made items such as furniture and jewelry. His serial entrepreneurship gives him an interesting perspective to share on the different financing options for startups. For example, CustomMade was VC-backed whereas ButcherBox was bootstrapped and still has taken no outside capital. ButcherBox also became B Corp certified in 2020, and Salguero is focused on making his company a force for good. On the podcast, we chat about how he’s built a supply chain that considers the animal, the farmer, and the planet in all decisions – a unique approach for the meat industry.

Guest Jennifer Neundorfer is cofounder and managing partner at January Ventures, an investment firm that is trying to address the unique challenges and biases faced by entrepreneurs often under-represented in business, including women and people of color. Neundorfer believes the next generation of startup investment returns will be driven by a much broader and more diverse set of founders, and she co-founded January Ventures to be the fund of choice for these traditionally underrepresented founders at the earliest stage. An operator turned investor, Neundorfer has been investing in early-stage startups for the last decade. And as a Latina GP, she is also committed to making the venture career path accessible to a more diverse group of potential GPs. Previously, Neundorfer was a Partner and Cofounder of Flashstarts, a startup accelerator and micro-VC fund focused on software startups in the Midwest. As an operator, she launched and scaled media and advertising businesses at 21st Century Fox and YouTube. She brings commercialization and business development expertise to her portfolio as she focuses on go to market strategy and tactics. She earned an MBA from Stanford and a BA from Harvard.

Guest Ryan Durkin is a serial entrepreneur, operator and product guy who’s interwoven himself into the fabric of Boston’s elite tech talent. Following his latest successful stint serving as head of product at Drizly (sold to Uber for 1.1B), Durkin is now busy building a sports agency for tech professionals in Boston -- The Operators. Durkin’s goal is to represent the top percent of tech talent, and offer them everything that agents provide to professional athletes -- from opening doors and closing deals to creative contracts and fan ownership. Durkin negotiates on their behalf much like a sports agent would, and helps The Operators and founders build strong companies. Durkin is no stranger to startups. He previously founded Wayfund, HeadstoneHub, and OneGoodMeal. Additionally, he was the cofounder of Dailybreak (acquired by Connelly Partners) and was a product manager at Wayfair (pre- and through IPO). We got a chance to catch up with Durkin before he hit the road on his motorcycle for a six-month journey around the country. Enjoy.

Guest Dominique Aubry is the founder of Aubry, an influencer-driven shopping app that uses computer vision, augmented reality and AI to help women build personalized wardrobes. This isn’t Aubry’s first foray into retail innovation. She previously founded All Yoga Pants to give curvy women better clothing options. With more than 15 years of experience working within the government, non-profit, for-profit, and startup community, Aubry has enjoyed a fascinating journey from Philadelphia to Boston. She began her career working for the Mayor's Office of Philadelphia and Teach for America. Aubry went on to become a Lean trainer for the Techstars company Lean Startup Machine where she trained more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, companies, non-profits, and government agencies on lean methodology. This led her to becoming the Managing Director of Impact Hub Philadelphia, an innovation campus focused on supporting entrepreneurs creating social change. When Aubry isn't working on her business, she mentors tech companies from Techstars, Harvard ilab, StartED, MassChallenge and others.

Guest TJ Douglas is the founder and CEO of The Urban Grape, a wine store in Boston’s South End neighborhood known for its proprietary Progressive Scale - a system of sorting wine by its body, instead of by varietal or region. Douglas has led The Urban Grape to becoming one of the most successful independently-owned wine stores in the country as a result. Douglas’ list of accomplishments is nothing short of astonishing. The Urban Grape has won multiple accolades as Boston’s Best Wine store from both Boston Magazine and The Improper Bostonian, as well as a Small Business of the Year Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in 2020. In 2018, Vinepair named The Urban Grape the top retail store in the North East, and Beverage Dynamics named the store a Top 100 Wine Retail Store in America in both 2019 and 2020. The store has also been nationally profiled in Food & Wine magazine, The New York Times, NPR, and Wine Enthusiast. He’s also a seven-time returning Sommelier for the Nantucket Wine Festival. Douglas also spends time teaching classes on drinking progressively at local places such as the Boston Center for Adult Education, Boston University, the Boston Wine Expo and for companies like Converse, Google, and Wellington. He’s also the co-author of The Urban Grape’s best selling wine education book Drink Progressively, and the resident wine expert on the New England lifestyle show, “Home, Life, and Design.” He co-founded and runs The Urban Grape with his wife Hadley Douglas. Together, they are also the co-founders of The Urban Grape Wine Studies Award for Students of Color, in partnership with Boston University. They are dedicated to increasing diversity in the wine industry through this program and provide mentorship to other people of color in the hospitality industry. The Douglas’ live in Boston with their two sons.

Enjoy this bonus episode of Boston Speaks Up host Zach Servideo appearing on the Fuel Your Fire podcast from Endicott College's Angle Center for Entrepreneurship where Zach is a visiting Entrepreneur-in-Residence. In this episode, Zach speaks on the future of tech and innovation, tells his story of packing up and moving out west to LA and "Silicon Beach", and shares the heartwarming legacy he wants to leave behind for his daughter.

Guest Cara Shortsleeve is the CEO at The Leadership Consortium (TLC), a leadership development platform designed to accelerate high potential and diverse leaders. Shortsleeve joined TLC in 2018 to launch and scale the business which has since forged relationships with Google, IBM, HubSpot, P&G, WPP and dozens more. Under Shortleeve’s leadership, TLC has enabled more than 2,000 executives to lead stronger teams and bring broader strategic mindsets to their business. Prior to joining TLC, Shortsleeve spent more than a decade in various leadership roles at Google and YouTube. Most recently, she served as a Global Director for GTM and commercialization at YouTube, focusing on product and commercial strategy. She was initially hired in 2007 to help launch and scale Google’s east coast, mid-market sales presence, after which she led the North American mid market sales teams for both Financial Services and Healthcare. Before Google, Shortsleeve managed the US running apparel business at New Balance, served as a Sales Director for Hind/Saucony, and spent three years with Morgan Stanley's Investment Banking Division.

Guest David Chang is an entrepreneur and angel investor who has held product, marketing and operating roles at six startups and invested in 60 companies. He was most recently the CEO at student loan startup Gradifi, which was acquired by E*TRADE in December 2019. Previously, he was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School and Director of the Babson Summer Venture Program. Chang has a successful track record in hands-on roles at both direct-to-consumer and enterprise companies, six of which were acquired or IPO’d. He previously led the PayPal Boston office and co-founded the Start Tank innovation space and the Where Angel Fund. Before WHERE’s acquisition by PayPal in April 2011, he held the role of VP of Product. Earlier in his career, on the consumer side, Chang was Director of New Products at TripAdvisor. Additionally, he was VP of Marketing and Co-founder of SnapMyLife. On the enterprise side, he was Director of Product Marketing at m-Qube, a pioneer in the mobile content space. He also served as Senior Product Manager at edocs and was a VP of Technology at Goldman Sachs. As a leader in the entrepreneurship community, Chang holds several advisor/board memberships. He is on the board at MITX, an advisor at Harvard Ventures, Nanigans, CO Everywhere, OpenFrame, and Linkwell Health. He has made 60 angel investments in startups such as Crashlytics, clypd, Amino, Logz, Cuseum, CarePort Health, Dashfire, Mogul, Uncharted Play, as well as through the Where Angel Fund and TBD Angels. We’re grateful to share our interview with Chang as he’s one of the most sought out speakers on the topics of startups, fundraising, and the Boston tech ecosystem, and he actively mentors countless students and founders.

Guest Carly Chase is an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Her work is wide in scope and includes serving as the Founding Managing Director of the MIT NYC Startup Studio (part of the MIT delta v accelerator), running the StartMIT entrepreneurship bootcamp, overseeing the Trust Center’s Membership Program for Organizations and New Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Symposium, coaching students, in addition to serving as a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Chase has enjoyed an exciting and wide-ranging entrepreneurial journey. After beginning her career at Goldman Sachs, she joined the New York City Economic Development Corporation under Mayor Michael Bloomberg where she launched and ran a number of programmatic initiatives aimed at making NYC a friendlier city for entrepreneurs to start and grow their companies. At the end of the Bloomberg administration, Chase left to launch and run Boulder based startup PivotDesk’s NYC office until the company was acquired at the end of 2016. Since then, she has worked within a number of startups in various product development, marketing, and business development capacities. Additionally, Chase is the co-founder of Crabwalk, an education and coaching company that builds career agility and is based on one simple principle: you don’t have to walk in a straight line to move forward in your career. We’re delighted to spend time exploring the non-linear path Chase has enjoyed in her career.

Guest Kiel Servideo is a former Hollywood assistant who’s always found comfort with a pen and a notebook. He moved out to Los Angeles a year after graduating from Boston University where he hustled various temp agency jobs before landing full-time gigs with Hollywood titans such as Jerry Bruckheimer and Shawn Levy. While living in LA, Servideo wrote his first novel -- The Preposterous Dreams of Tucker Adams -- a fiction documenting a modern tale of the pursuit of Manifest Destiny. In the Fall of 2019, Servideo and his wife left their life in Los Angeles and each accepted jobs abroad teaching English to grade schoolers in Seville, Spain. Half way through the school year, a global pandemic changed everything. Servideo spent much of 2020 in lockdown with his wife, utilizing Airbnb to see more of Spain while remaining in isolation. Servideo is now living in a 300 year old farm house in Umbria, Italy, and he and his wife are working for DTC nail services startup Olive & June. As Servideo continues to life hack the pandemic, he’s discovering authors, reading, writing and reflecting on the divisive politics in America from Europe. We’re grateful to begin 2021 catching up with Servideo for all to hear.

Guest Neil Jacobs is the president and founder of the 3Point Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers free educational, sports and dance programming to under-served youth in Boston. Working closely with the Boston Celtics, Boston Public Schools, UMass Boston and additional partners, Jacobs and 3Point are on a mission to improve the lives of Boston’s youth through positive reinforcement in the classroom and through group athletics. Prior to 3Point Foundation, Jacobs served as outside team counsel for the Boston Celtics for 30 years, making it no surprise that 3Point is a community partner of the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. In fact, Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is one of the first people Jacobs pitched the idea of 3Point Foundation to. Toward the end of our podcast discussion, Jacobs shares a remarkable first-hand account of when the Toronto Blue Jays sued the Boston Celtics over the rights of Danny Ainge, including some incredible insight into the mind of Celtics legendary coach and general manager Red Auerbach (see the 59:00 minute mark). A retired partner of the WilmerHale law firm, Jacobs has spent decades involved in numerous education and basketball programs for youth. Now serving more than 250 students, 3Point runs after-school programs in Boston K-8 schools and operates summer programming at two locations. Jacobs is responsible for the overall management and strategic direction of 3Point, and he’s helped 3Point pivot to a virtual education model during the pandemic.

Guest Chris Vail is a Senior Account Executive for Political and Advocacy Partnerships at Snapchat. A former Amazon ad sales leader, Vail made the move to Snapchat to help onboard legislative, issue, and non-profit advertisers onto the Snapchat platform. His team recently launched an augmented reality lens for the Mark Kelly campaign in Arizona, which was the first Senate campaign to lean in on this new, experiential way of engaging voters. Snapchat has also made news waves recently for signing up more than 750,000 young voters via its Snapchat app (and now it’s crossed 1 million registered voters). Prior to Snapchat, Vail headed up sales for Downstream, a fast-growing Amazon product marketing startup. He began his media career as a planner and buyer for a large D.C. political shop. In 2014, he migrated from politics to ecommerce, moved from D.C. to Seattle and landed at Amazon to help build out its (at the time) small digital ads team. He spearheaded the expansion of Amazon’s ad business into New York, Toronto and Boston, where he eventually moved with his family.

Guest Ari Fine Glantz is the Director of Development & Strategic Initiatives at the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA), the regional trade association for the venture capital industry, with mission to foster a collaborative, inclusive, and prosperous innovation ecosystem. At NEVCA, Glantz leads the organization’s revenue generating activities, manages legislative strategy, and supports president Jody Rose on new program development. He has served as a coach and judge for a variety of accelerators and pitch competitions around Boston, and is an infrequent contributor to TechCrunch, BostInno, and TEDx. Glantz recently launched a lighthearted fundraiser -- Fund.Razor -- to decide the stylistic fate of his year-plus-long beard. All funds raised will support Hack.Diversity, a division of the NEVCA tackling the underrepresentation of high-skilled minority talent in Boston's innovation ecosystem. Glantz leans on an atypical journey that led him to the NEVCA: entrepreneurship, to international athletics, to social work; San Francisco, to Paris, to Australia, before returning to his roots in New England. He is a graduate of Vassar College and a native Cantabrigian (person from Cambridge).