Episode #288 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Rodney Williams - Serial Entrepreneur & Co-Founder of SoLo Funds.

It’s impressive when an entrepreneur builds a company from scratch that ultimately scales, but I think it is even more impressive when you can combine a strong social mission to a company that scales, as well.

This is what Rodney and his Co-Founder, Travis Holoway, have built with SoLo Funds, a leading community finance platform focused on underserved communities. It’s a marketplace where you can lend money to those who are looking to borrow. It’s working, as the company has over 1.3M downloads and has surpassed 600K in loans funded and $300M in transaction value.

As the only Black owned B Corp Fintech in the U.S. and Canada, the company is backed by a variety of investors including Richelieu Dennis’ fund, New Voices and Serena Williams’ fund, Serena Ventures.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

• Advice for entrepreneurs of color on raising funding for their startup.
• Rodney’s background story including obtaining his MBA from Howard University and his time at Proctor & Gamble as a Brand Manager.
• We break down the tech and use cases for LISNR, a leading ultrasonic data platform company that he co-founded.
• All the details about SoLo Funds in terms of how the company came together and the impact that it is making.
• The story of his recent TV appearance on the Peacock series called Founding in Color.
• And so much more.

Here's your look at the latest hires and promotions across the tech community at Linus Health and Cassie.

Did I miss your new employees? Send me an email with their name and details about their new role. I'll add them to next week's edition of Talent on the Move. 

Linus Health

Leah Ray

 

Chief Customer Officer at Linus Health

Previously, Chief Customer Officer at Jvion

Linus Health is hiring!

Cassie

Matthew Dorey

 

Head of Service Delivery at Cassie

Previously, Client Solutions Delivery Manager at Insource Ltd

Daniel Tomlinson

 

Product Manager at Cassie

 

Previously, Product Owner at vast:visibility

 

James Crumpton

 

Head of Finance at Cassie

 

Previously, Senior manager - team leader at WR Partners UK

 

Kate Price

 

Head of Marketing at Cassie

 

Previously, Head of Marketing & Inbound at Fuelius

 

 

 

In recognition of International Women's Day and this year's theme #EmbraceEquity, we reached out to companies asking the following question: 

How is your company recognizing International Women's Day?

Here are their responses. 

Catapult

Catapult's #WAC = Women at Catapult ERG is celebrating with a company wide event- In honor of International Women’s Day, WAC will be hosting an International Women's Day themed quiz and in-person breakfast/snacks from a woman owned restaurant in Boston! Wearing our purple!!

 

PathAI

At PathAI we are celebrating womxn in our field by hosting a company-wide guest speaker event with Dr. Hala Borno, Co-Founder of Trial Library, to highlight the work Trial Library has done to improve health equity by expanding access to cancer precision medicine. As a company whose mission is to improve patient outcomes, we are excited to promote dialogue across the organization surrounding the contributions womxn have made to the scientific and medical fields and to educate our employees on how we can all help improve health equity.

1upHealth

At 1upHealth, recognizing women is a consistent and ongoing effort championed by our women's employee resource group. Our ERG group takes an active role in promoting gender inclusivity and equity in our workplace. Our initiatives include weekly brainstorm sessions as well as frequent events in which all employees are invited to partake. Some of the recent events include panel discussions and Q&A on the following topics: Diversity in Recruiting & Inclusivity in Retention, Giving and Receiving Feedback, and Female Founders. Here at 1upHealth, we are on a mission to encourage one another to grow and thrive in both our personal and professional lives and to help create change for women in the workplace.

 

Pluralsight

Women at Pluralsight will be celebrating through the theme of #EmbraceEquity. We will be celebrating International Women’s Day by involving our other ERG’s, See Color and Pride at Pluralsight, to join us in discussing how equity plays an important role in all aspects of life. We are hoping through this discussion, we can open up ways to embrace equity in professional and personal life. We will encourage everyone to join in the conversation via Slack, in case people cannot make the event.

 

 

EDB

EDB is celebrating women all month long!

Weekly post: Woman of the Week featuring women in leadership and their stories of how their career journey led them to their current position.

International Women's Day - EDB will be putting together a blog post about how women at EDB feel supported as employees of EDB. Stories will center around mental health, physical health, and general well-being.

Other posts in March: Women at EDB share how they achieve work-life balance. Highlight aspiring women in tech.

Employee Spotlight (monthly content from EDB).

 

 

Starburst

In honor of Women's History Month and International Women's Day, we are having our first-ever Womxn at Starburst internal Executive Panel with our very own Alison Huselid - SVP Product, Jess Iandiorio - Chief Marketing Officer & Megan Maslanka, Chief People Officer! On Tuesday, March 7th at 1pm ET we will host an interactive panel in the Boston Office. Those of our employees who live in the area are encouraged to attend live, and the event will be streamed for those who cannot make it. We will be asking some fun questions our employees submitted as well as diving into the career paths and wisdom of each leader.

In addition, we are also launching a social media campaign where members of our ERG, Womxn at Starburst, are nominating women who inspire them and who have helped them progress in their careers. We are very excited to share our stories in honor of this important month of celebration!

 

Inari

Diversity powers Inari, the Cambridge-based SEEDesign™ company. The company has a female CEO, female CSO, female CPO, and female CIDO, and women comprise over half of the Science team. This International Women's Day and Women's History Month, the company asked some of their female colleagues across sites and functions to share what empowers and motivates them to strive for gender equality in male-dominated fields like science, agriculture and technology.  Read more on their blog.

 

Hometap

This year, Hometap launched its first Employer Resource Group, Women in Tech, where our female employees come together to share resources, stories, and host events. We launched with a fireside chat featuring our COO and President, Sarah Dekin, which gave our employees the opportunity to hear about her path to success and ask questions about her experiences rising the ranks in tech.

 

Anaqua

Anaqua is celebrating IWD by empowering women both within our company and our industry at large. The company will sponsor a nonprofit that trains and mentors young women in tech; meanwhile, employees will be invited to share how they are challenging gender stereotypes and promoting inclusion. These responses will be compiled and shared internally and externally to inspire others to embrace equity.

 

HealthEdge

We are having a panel discussion with female leaders at HealthEdge on 3/27 about their career trajectories and overcoming obstacles, we are launching a new Women’s ERG (Employee Resource Group) and we are sponsoring our employees for two events: a Women In Tech Conference, and Women In Healthcare IT memberships.

 

Bamboo Health

At Bamboo Health, we are proud to celebrate Women’s History Month and recognize the contributions and success of our female employees. While March may be Women's History Month, we hold ourselves accountable for creating equal opportunities for employees who identify as female throughout the year. We have women leaders, women in technology, and up and coming professional women we celebrate. While we don’t need any extra reason to celebrate their success, we are proud to host a virtual candle making event led by a woman-owned company in late March to recognize International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month.

 

SmartBear

For International Women's Day, SmartBear employees worldwide are invited to join one of two interactive discussion sessions to have a global conversation about inspiring women in their lives as well as brainstorm what it means to be supported and to be an ally. By sharing their perspectives in a small group breakout session, adding their thoughts to a global digital whiteboard, or simply listening, employees will learn about allyship at work while celebrating the women of SmartBear.

 

JOOR

JOOR is kicking off our Women's History Month with our NYC HQ's Day of Service supporting "God's Love We Deliver," a women-led nonprofit that provides food access for folks across the NYC community. We also have an array of virtual events for our Global teams to participate in, like an interactive education session "Exploring Women in Art" and Q&A sessions with our CEO and other women-identifying senior leadership. We are also dedicating a section in our weekly company-wide newsletter to showcase and uplift the incredible voices of women across JOOR.

 

Duck Creek Technologies

At Duck Creek Technologies, the 2023 theme to honor Women’s History Month is “Women’s Empowerment.” The Women’s Resource Group designated this theme and defined empowerment as promoting women’s sense of self-worth, a woman’s ability to determine their own choices, and right to influence social change for themselves and others. In addition to movie clips, trivia games and meditation sessions, we have seven global discussions and panels, starting with the Women’s History Month Kickoff Fireside Chat with Guest Speaker Meg McKeen, a female trailblazer in the insurance industry sharing her journey in promoting and supporting women’s sense of self-worth, ability to determine their own choices and to influence change. A few other highlights include the opportunity to join the “She Rise, We Rise” Coffee Hour with Lynn Rivenburgh and Gail McGiffin in “Defining Success,” a Global Shout-Out from Mike Jacowski, our CEO, and Courtney Townsend, our CPO, and a “She Rise, We Rise” collaboration with Duck Creek’s Black Employee Resource Group to discuss why and how being color brave means recognizing and embracing the reality that we see color.

Arcadia

At Arcadia we are celebrating International Women's Day by spending the day and the month highlighting powerful, impactful women.

We have a weekly round of trivia on Wednesdays and we are dedicating the month of March to trivia highlighting women's history. This gives all Arcadians a chance to interact and learn about women who have shaped the world we live in today. This is one of our favorite weekly activities to engage in as a company for some fun and learning.

We also are also going to share informational posts in our company's general and Diversity and Inclusion channels to help encourage conversations about women who inspire us. Each week is highlighting someone important and has made an impact in women's worlds. Employees will engage in a conversation sharing who their most inspirational women are and how they have influenced their lives.

 

connectRN

At connectRN we believe in creating a workplace that empowers women and promotes work-life balance and equitable pay. This year, we're celebrating International Women's Month with a series of events that highlight the unique challenges that women face in the workplace, including discussions on what affects women but not men. Our AccounTEAbility party will also provide a supportive space for women to set personal and professional goals with a mentor to help them achieve success. Let's come together to celebrate and empower women in all aspects of life!

 

Openly

Openly believes that praising and recognizing one another is essential for an inclusive working environment. For International Women's Day, Openly will offer a few ways for team members to celebrate. Team members can nominate a female colleague who has positively impacted them or their team. Nominees will receive a personalized digital award and recognition in our next company all-hands meeting. Additionally, Openly will host a panel where female leaders share their journeys and stories about workplace success. All employees are invited to the discussion and are encouraged to submit questions before or during the moderated event. Lastly, Openly is hosting a company-wide book club throughout 2023 featuring Sally Helgesen's, How Women Rise. To learn more about Openly, please visit https://openly.com/careers.

 

Forward Financing

Forward is celebrating International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month throughout March! We kicked off the month with Virtual Bingo to help our team get to know the women at the company with trivia questions, and take action in support of International Women’s Day. On March 8, our women-identifying team members are coming together for small group lunches – an opportunity to share stories, experiences, and learn from one another. Finally, we’re hosting a “Women in Leadership” panel to highlight five female Leadership Team members and their path to becoming a leader in Tech. We’re excited to bring our team together for these authentic conversations and celebrate the amazing women at Forward!

 

Apploi

In addition to posting an exclusive interview with one of the female leads on our Engineering team, Apploi is going to have a virtual performance by a female comedian!

 

O’Reilly

O'Reilly today announced that it has opened applications for its diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) scholarship program to help members of underrepresented groups broaden their access to technology content. The scholarship program will award 500 recipients with free membership to the O’Reilly learning platform for one year, presenting the opportunity for talent from underrepresented groups to kickstart their careers in technology, refine their current skill sets, or develop new skills.

While the industry has much more progress to make in advancing diversity, this scholarship program is a step toward fostering a more equitable and inclusive landscape of tech professionals and leaders who have the potential to make a positive impact in our world. Applications are being accepted now through March 31. More details can be found here: https://www.oreilly.com/diversity/scholarship-program.html.

 

CarGurus

At CarGurus, International Women’s Day is a month-long celebration! Our Women@CarGurus ERG and our Women in Sales and Women in Tech communities have lined up a series of empowering and inspiring events including a talk on self-advocacy for women, a fireside chat with a seasoned Fortune 500 tech leader, and a women’s self-defense workshop. We’ll also announce the next session of Elevate, our 6-month long mentorship program that pairs women and nonbinary employees with experienced leaders from across the company for personal and professional development. Ongoing lunch chats, book club meetings, and an allyship learning series will complement the festivities.

 

Rue Gilt Groupe

Rue Gilt Groupe is proud of our commitment to developing and empowering women, not only on International Women’s Day, but every day and we are thrilled that 65% of our corporate Associates and 59% of our director level and above Associates self-identify as women. To celebrate International Women’s Day, RGG is hosting virtual small group conversations for Associates, led by women leaders within RGG, to discuss how we can collectively #EmbraceEquity at work, at home, and in our communities. Associates, regardless if hybrid, onsite, or fully remote, will also have an opportunity to fill boards within our office spaces showcasing influential women in their lives.

Our Gilt brand is launching an Inspire & Empower on International Women’s Day boutique (accessible via Gilt.com) and will donate 10% of the boutique’s proceeds to support Project Glimmer, whose mission is to inspire every girl to envision and realize her empowered future.

 

Workhuman

This International Women’s Day, we’ll make our mark. Our impact will be visible. And we as individuals, and as a community will be celebrated, honoured, appreciated and seen. We’ll foster community and belonging through wellness events, welcome speakers and panels into our space, and gather around a shared purpose. Our Women and Allies ERG will be taking the lead to organise events for the day of International Women’s Day as well as throughout the month of March to honor Women’s History Month.

- Our wellness events include a Women’s Health Sessions as well as virtual and in person gym classes in aid of our partner charities Jane Doe Inc. in the US and Saoirse Women’s Refuge.​

- We will also be spotlighting Women at Workhuman and encouraging them to share their stories and help inspire more to embrace equity.

- Our Women and Allies ERG will be partnering with our DEI ERG and their Book Club during the month of March and will be featuring the Voices in the Shadow book showcasing the journeys of 51 Black women who impacted the tech industry. Our very own, Alma Tarfa, Associate Manager, Engineering features in the book.

- The ERG will also be hosting a panel with Diversity and Inclusion Speaker, Furkan Karayel and Presenter and Author Emer O'Neill discussing this year's theme #embraceequity and visability in the workplace.

- Our Talent Development team will be curating a collection of trainings/resources and materials to encourage team members to learn and educate themselves further.

 

We are really excited to announce a new website from VentureFizz called:

Just Product Management Jobs

The new website is a category specific job board focused on the Product Management function - which is hopefully obvious 🤣 👍 based on the name of the site.

Our goal for Just Product Management Jobs is simple: to build the world’s most targeted website focused on the Product Management profession, as we believe it is an underserved sector. 

As you'll notice, a key element that went into the design and functionality of the new site is simplicity. I think products are sometimes over-complicated, whereas it is better serves as basic and simple. So, you won't find any AI infused tech here.

We will be combining laser focused job postings with high-value blog content that will be written by expert contributors covering topics around career advice and the latest trends + best practices in the PM industry. 

I'm really excited about the launch of this new site for a couple of reasons. First, it's part of our expansion plans for VentureFizz. Second, if you didn't know... I ran a boutique search firm focused on helping startups hire Product Managers for over fourteen years! Needless to say, I have a deep understanding and appreciation of the Product Management profession.

Click here to check out the new site and if you are interested in learning more about why we started Just Product Management Jobs, click here to check out our blog post with additional details.

So, if you are...

1.  A Product Manager who is looking for a new position or if you are just interested in keeping tabs on new openings, click here to start exploring and sign up for a Job Alerts email.

2.  Interested in helping us out by spreading the word about the new site, click here to share or like our post on LinkedIn.

Thanks for your support!

Keith Cline is the Founder of VentureFizz. Follow him on Twitter: @kcline6.

Episode #286 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Eliza Becton, Sean Grundy, and Frank Lee - Founders of Bevi.

Fate, luck, destiny… whatever you call it, it seems very apparent that all three founders of Bevi were meant to build a company together.

They all shared a common interest in sustainability, a desire to build a company, and experience in a field that had water at its core.

Eliza grew up sailing and was always interested in ocean stewardship which led her down the path of evaluating different ideas where she could leverage her industrial design knowledge to build a product that could make an impact on the bottled water crisis.

Sean spent three years working in an environmental non-profit and worked on wetland conservation projects in China and later attended MIT Sloan and was president of the MIT Water Club.

Frank comes from entrepreneurial roots and worked for an irrigation startup before meeting Sean in China only to learn that they would be attending MIT Sloan together that fall and ultimately roomed together.

So, when investors ask themselves - why are these founders uniquely qualified to build this company… I don’t know if you could ever find a better founding team.

Bevi is disrupting the beverage industry with its bottleless water dispenser for offices and commercial spaces. The company has over 5,000 customers and has raised multiple round of funding, include a $70M Series D last year which was led by Cowen Sustainable Investments.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

• The story of how a Bevi machine ended up in HBO’s Silicon Valley.
• The background story of each founder and more info on how the three came together to start a company.
• A brief history of the bottled water industry and the staggering number of plastic water bottles that are sold each year which is massive.
• Early foundational years of building Bevi and early interations of the machine while figuring out product market fit.
• Scale of the business and the launch of the counter-top version, plus some insight into the possibility of a consumer version.
• Navigating the pandemic and how some critical decisions ended up benefiting the business over the long term.
• And so much more.

Here's your look at the latest hires and promotions across the tech community at Advisor360, airSlate, and Biobot Analytics.

Did I miss your new employees? Send me an email with their name and details about their new role. I'll add them to next week's edition of Talent on the Move. 

Advisor360°

Mat Mathews

 

SVP, Product at Advisor360°

Previously, GM, AWS Transfer Family at Amazon Web Services

Advisor360° is hiring!

airSlate

Richard Rosenstein

 

Chief Financial Officer at airSlate

Previously, Chief Financial Officer at Acacia Research

Biobot Analytics

Joe Dillon

 

Chief Revenue Officer at Biobot Analytics

Previously, Head of Sales - Productivity Applications at Amazon Web Services

 

 

Episode #286 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ryan Nelson - Partner at Jobi.

What do the following brands have in common: Casamigos, Skims, Fenty Beauty, Aviation Gin, and Beats by Dre? Well, they all have a celebrity as a co-founder.

While celebrities can land a lucrative endorsement deal, it pales in comparison to what the outcome can be if you own part of a company that is successful. The pairing of a brand with a celebrity founder just makes sense as one of the core ingredients that they typically bring to the table is a massive following.

However, you can’t just launch a brand and expect that consumers will be customers, especially over the long haul. It needs to be a quality product that is filling a void for consumers. Plus, it needs to be a match for the celebrity with a compeling story behind it, which I think is the other key ingredient.

This is where Jobi comes in and specializes. Its startup venture studio is focused on launching consumer brands in partnership with celebrities and influencers.

Ryan is a Co-Founder and board member of Homecourt, a home-focused consumer brand founded by Courteney Cox with a collection of fragrance infused luxury cleaning and household products.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

• Ryan’s advice, as a mixed race professional, on what can be done to improve the diversity numbers across investors and employees at startups.
• His background story, plus the details of his own startup and lessons learned.
• Jobi’s approach and role it play around building companies, plus how they identify products and partner with celebrities.
• The full story of Homecourt and why Courteney Cox was a perfect match.
• Information about Jobi’s experiential division and its interactive art experiences like INTER_.
• eCommerce predictions and the key elements that go into building a successful consumer brand.
• And so much more.

Take a tour of Aura office space located in Boston, MA.

Interested in working at Aura? Take a look at the company's job openings below the slideshow.