Santa Clara Ventures

Today, we have a chat with the founder of the first company to get acquired after going through the Bronco Venture Accelerator. For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the Founder and CEO of Blockrize, Thomas Harrison.

Blockrize is a financial technology company that is building the Blockrize card, the first credit card with Bitcoin and Ethereum rewards. Their mission is to simplify the process and lower the risk for consumers to invest in cryptocurrency so that it becomes more accessible to all. Blockrize was recently acquired by Gemini and has become a part of their credit card offering.

In this interview, we dive into how Thomas went about starting Blockrize, what he has learned throughout the process of growing his company, and why he decided to go through with the acquisition by Gemini.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Thomas a little better.

Today, we have a venture capitalist who has recently made his way into the world of venture financing. For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Plug and Play Venture Analyst, Maxim Baban.

In this interview, we dive into how Maxim got interested in VC, how he went about making it into the VC ecosystem, and a look at some trends he has been watching.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Maxim a little better.

As mentioned in the episode, Maxim has his own podcast called The Startup Scalers Show. Make sure you go check it out to get some more insights on the investing and founder side!

Today, we have an amazing SCU alumni who founded his company with his friends during his time at SCU. For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the Co-Founder and CMO of Onerent, Chuck Hattemer.

The world's first contactless rental experience is on Onerent.

In this interview, we dive into how Chuck went about starting Onerent, what he has learned throughout the process of growing his company, and why Onerent decided to go with more experienced angel investors over institutional investors.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Chuck a little better.

We have another founder episode this week but with someone very special! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the advisor program lead for the Bronco Venture Accelerator and a founding member at Armature Systems, Alexi Sevastopoulos.

In this interview, we dive into how Alexi went about starting Armature Systems, what he has learned throughout the process of growing his company, and how he got involved with the BVA.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Alexi a little better.

This week we have a founder episode with another Bronco Venture Accelerator graduate! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the founder of Kitts Coaching and Life Motion, Jak Kitts.

Kitts Coaching provides strength and fitness coaching & training templates to help their clients achieve their goals as quickly, simply, and safely as possible.

In this interview, we dive into how Jak came up with the idea for Life Motion and Kitts Coaching, his experience going through the Bronco Venture Accelerator, and what he has learned through starting and growing Kitts Coaching.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Jak a little better.

We have a special episode today where we are joined by Robinson Lu as your Co-Host! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Foster who is a SCU alumni and has held partner roles at various VC firms including Crosspoint Venture Partners, TPG Ventures, and others. 

In this interview, we dive into how Steve entered the VC industry, his take on Corporate VCs as well as SPACs, and what trends he is currently watching.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Steve a little better.

We have a special founder episode this week with our first Y-Combinator startup! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the Founder & CEO of Virtually, Ish Baid.

Virtually makes it easy to build and scale an online learning community.

In this interview, we dive into how Ish came up with the idea for Virtually, what he has learned through this process of starting and growing Virtually, and his experience going through Y-Combinator's first fully virtual class.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Ish a little better.

We have another founder episode this week! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the Co-Founder of Opal, Mariah Manzano.

Opal is the tinder for mentorship and looks to match college students with working professionals for mentorship.

In this interview, we dive into how Mariah came up with the idea for Opal, What she has learned through this process of starting and growing Opal, and her experience going through the Bronco Venture Accelerator.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Mariah a little better.

This is our second founder episode on the podcast! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the founder of Zadart and Rematch, Jonny Netz.

In this interview, we dive into how Jonny came up with the idea for Zadart, what he has learned through out the process of building his companies, and some advise for fellow entrepreneurs out there.

As always, we end with our personal questions for us to get to know Jonny a little better.

This is our first corporate law episode on the podcast! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Russell, corporate partner at Stoel Rives LLP.

In this interview, we dive into how Chris got into corporate law and started working with emerging companies, the different areas of corporate law that he has expertise in, and some venture capital specific questions about due diligence and fund formation.

As always, we end with 5 personal questions for us to get to know Chris a little better.

Through this insight into the corporate law world that plays a big part in the VC investing process but is rarely spoken about, we hope to give out listeners a holistic view of the VC investing process.

Let us know what you think and if you want to hear more about this side of VC that is rarely talked about.

For our sixth episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Erbst from SPJ GTM Accelerator.

We start with the path that Steve took to connect with the VC community, then we talk about SPJ GTM Accelerator and what differentiates them from other start-up accelerators and we finish with our signature personal questions.

For our fifth episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Tanner Merrill, an Investor at e.ventures.

As always, we start with the path that Tanner took to enter the VC industry, then we talk about e.ventures and the proprietary tools they have that differentiates them from other VC firms, then we dive into emerging trends to look out for and we finish with our signature personal questions.

This is our first founder episode on the podcast! For this episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the founder and CEO of OnePointOne, Samuel Bertram. 

In this interview, we dive into how Sam came up with the idea for OnePointOne, what he has learned through out the process of building his company, and how he handled the VC investing process.

As always, we end with 5 personal questions for us to get to know Sam a little better.

For our third episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing the individual who introduced me to the world of venture capital, Lokesh Sikaria from Moneta Ventures.

As always, we start with the path that Lokesh took to enter the VC industry, then we talk about Moneta Ventures and their investment focus, then we dive into what makes a startup successful and we finish with our signature personal questions.

For our second episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Roger Akers from Akers Capital.

As always, we start with the path that Roger took to enter the VC industry, then we talk about Akers Capital and their investment focus, and we finish with our signature personal questions.

For our first episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Chen from ShangBay Capital. 

In this podcast we delve into the path that Andrew took to reach the VC industry, the impact that COVID has had on the VC ecosystem, how ShangBay Capital makes decisions throughout the VC process, and some emerging trends to look out for.

You will also get a more holistic view of Andrew with our signature 5 personal questions.

This is an introduction for the Santa Clara Ventures Podcast. In this episode, we talk about the topics that will be discussed in the following podcasts and how we decided to start Santa Clara Ventures.