Ventures In Tech | Discussing The Ever-changing Worlds Of Vc, Startups, & Tech

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN:: Welcome to episode seven of Ventures in Tech, brought to you by Firefield. This is Adam McGowan and on today’s show we’re going to discuss the concept of the minimum viable product or MVP and the risks of mistaking assumption testing for product development. I’m again being joined by my colleague from Firefield, Henry Reohr, who will be guiding today’s chat. And with that, I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR: [00:34]: Adam, in the startup environment, the term minimum viable product gets thrown around a lot. It also seems to have a number of definitions. Can multiple meanings of MVP all be correct? ADAM MCGOWAN: [00:47]: Well, if you like to be a bit of a purist, which I think of myself as when it comes to this, I would argue that you go back to the source. And in his book, The Lean Startup, Eric Ries created what’s probably known as popularized version or at least what was initially the most popularized version of the definition of this MVP. And he said that a minimum

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN: : Welcome to episode six of Ventures in Tech, brought to you by Firefield. This is Adam McGowan and on today’s show we’re going to discuss the variety of options available to startups in their early stages when it comes to getting funded. I’m again being joined by my colleague from Firefield, Henry Reohr, who’ll be guiding today’s chat. And with that, I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR: [00:31]: Adam, for many entrepreneurs, the world of venture funding can seem daunting for a whole host of reasons. Even the terminology can be hard to follow. Before we dig into the actual options for raising capital, could you decode some of the jargon related to the different rounds of fundraising? ADAM MCGOWAN: [00:51]: Sure. You know, I think that over time this has become a little bit more complicated because it used to be pretty simple; a new startup with self-finance or they would get funded from friends and family and then as soon as things started to move and they got some tract

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN: Welcome to episode five of Ventures in Tech, brought to you by Firefield. This is Adam McGowan and on today’s show we’re going to discuss the economics of venture funding and the forces that can hurt the alignment of interests between entrepreneurs and their investors. I’m again being joined by my colleague from Firefield, Henry Reohr, who’ll be guiding today’s chat. And with that, I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR [00:36]: Adam, I’ve heard numerous investors talk about the alignment between their interests and those of the founding teams in their portfolios. It’d seem that both investors and entrepreneurs want to see the company succeed but I’ve heard you describe cases where investors and founders don’t see eye to eye. Can you explain? ADAM MCGOWAN [00:56]: Sure. I think the key element here is the fact that investors can come in many different shapes and sizes. And I’m talking about institutional investment from the likes of venture capitalists. The common trait wit

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN [00:08]: Welcome to episode four of Ventures in Tech, brought to you by Firefield. This is Adam McGowan and on today’s show we’re going to discuss an initiative I started earlier this year called the Spark Series. I’m again being joined by my colleague from Firefield, Henry Reohr, who’ll be guiding today’s chat. And with that, I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR: [00:30]: Adam, back in February of this year, you brought together ten people for lunch at Cambridge. Why did you assemble that crew? ADAM [00:38]: Well, it goes back to the fact that in my normal course of my day job, I have to do a lot of networking, go to a lot of events, meet a lot of people. And I think what I’d found was that events seemed to be falling short in two generally broad categories for me. One was really extremely transactional stuff. Hawking business cards at each other; referral type networks; it was very “what have you done for me lately?”. And at the other end of the spectrum, it was the over

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN [00:08]: Welcome to episode three of Ventures in Tech, brought to you by Firefield. This is Adam McGowan and on today’s show we are going to discuss financial projections made by entrepreneurs for the purposes of raising capital. I’ll again be joined by my colleague from Firefield, Henry Reohr, who will be guiding today’s chat. And with that I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR: [00:31]: Adam I have heard you tell a number of entrepreneurs that investors don’t care about their financial projections. Since projections are standard in most pitch decks, that can’t actually be true. Were you just being sarcastic? ADAM [00:44]: Sarcastic? Not really. Mildly hyperbolic?… Okay, maybe that. But I would say that in some very specific cases my statement is totally true and I would stand behind it. I think the way I can stand behind it is to start by defining the scenarios I’m really talking about. These would be early stage ventures that have not already raised a round of capital, p

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN [00:08]: Welcome to episode two of Ventures in Tech, brought to you by Firefield. This is Adam McGowan and on today’s show we’re going to be talking about the topic of advising and mentoring in the startup ecosystem. I’ll again be joined by my colleague Henry Reohr from Firefield who’ll be leading today’s conversation. And with that, I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR: [00:32]: Well, before we dive into a lot of detail, I want to start at a pretty high level. It would seem that when an expert is willing to share insights with an entrepreneur, that’s a pretty good thing. As with most good things, more is usually better. Do you think it would be fair to say that an entrepreneur should take all the mentorship advising they can get? ADAM [00:56]: I wish it was universally fair, but I don’t really think that it is. I think one of the challenges is the fact that too much advice can actually be, at best, a bit confusing, and at worst, I think it could actually be misleading or

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN:  [00:08]   Welcome to episode one of Ventures in Tech, a podcast brought to you by Firefield that tries to find the intersection of innovators, ideas, tech products and the upstart ventures they inspire. I’m Adam McGowan,  Firefield CEO. On today’s show, we take this podcast on its maiden voyage. I’ll be joined by my colleague, Henry Reohr, who will press me on what this new endeavor is all about. And with that, I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR [00:28]: All right. So here we are, it’s the inaugural episode of Ventures in Tech, the first podcasting endeavor from the team of Firefield. Are we ready? Are we feeling good? ADAM [00:48]: Yeah, I am. I’m good to go Henry. HENRY [00:53] Okay. So for those who don’t already know, who exactly are you? ADAM [01:00]: Well, I am Adam McGowan. I am the founder and CEO at Firefield. A little bit of background on who we are and what we do: Firefield is a company that helps tech enabled companies grow and succeed. We really do that by