Episode 383 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Rob Biederman, Managing Partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners.
Not too long ago, people didn’t really associate entrepreneurship with Harvard Business School, but I feel like a shift started to happen in 2009-2010 when companies like Birchbox, Rent The Runway, and ThredUp were all started by HBS students.
The trend continued while Rob was at HBS and started what was called HourlyNerd at the time with his co-founders in 2013 and today, HBS is one of the premier B-schools for entrepreneurship.
HourlyNerd rebranded to Catalant and is the market leader for connecting companies to vetted independent consultants for right-sized engagements with Fortune 500 companies where proven expertise is required. The company competes against the top strategy consulting firms and has raised $125M in funding from General Catalyst, Highland Capital, Greylock, Salesforce Ventures, and others.
Asymmetric is an early-stage technology investment firm focused on vertical software, digital health, and consolidations of cash-flow positive businesses.
In this episode of our podcast, we cover:
- The importance of building long term relationships with investors before you are raising capital.
- Rob’s background story and getting his career started at Goldman Sachs & Bain Capital and what he learned from this experience.
- Going back to b-school at Harvard Business School and the story of how HourlyNerd started.
- How a Shark Tank non-appearance led to an investment from Mark Cuban that helped pave the way for their first fundraise.
- Building and scaling the on-demand marketplace with an emphasis on quality and why they rebranded to Catalant.
- Starting Asymmetric and the firm’s unique focus in terms of exclusively raising capital for their fund from family offices as LPs.
- What they are targeting in terms of investments and how they add value post-fundraise.
- Go-To-Market advice for startups and when to hire your first head of sales.
- And so much more.
Episode Sponsor:
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