Episode #328 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ellen Chisa, Partner at boldstart ventures.
Back in 2016, we wrote a profile about Ellen on VentureFizz when she was leading product management at Lola.com. The profile was part of a series that we called Driven, which I think is a very fitting word to describe Ellen… and ironically, the discussion around considering a role in venture capital actually came up. So, in my opinion, it was only a matter of time.
From being part of the winning team in high school for the FIRST Robotics competition, to starting a company in college, to a career path in product management, to leading a company that was developing a new programming language… Ellen has built the perfect core foundation for a successful career as an investor.
boldstart is a venture capital firm that is your partner from inception for developer first, infrastructure, & SaaS founders that looking to turn your idea into a category-creating iconic company. The firm’s portfolio includes companies like Snyk, Kustomer, BigID, Superhuman and many more.
In this episode of our podcast, we cover:
- A conversation about what makes a great product manager.
- Ellen’s background including the story of taking some time off to build an EdTech startup with other classmates while in college at the Olin School of Engineering,
- Working on early mobile initiatives at Microsoft, then joining Kickstarter as a Product Manager, and what led her to pursue her MBA at Harvard Business School.
- Meeting serial entrepreneur, Paul English, and leading product at Lola.com, a travel app.
- Developing a new programming language for her startup called Dark with Paul Biggar which allows companies to build software faster, plus what this experience taught her in terms of leading a company and getting adoption with the developer community.
- The future of AI developed code.
- How she landed in venture capital at boldstart including what she is targeting for investments and what has been her biggest surprise as a VC.
- Startup pitch advice.
- And so much more.