When Jeff Clavier founded SoftTech VC there weren’t too many investors doing small, seed-stage investments in next generation web companies. Many traditional venture capitalists just didn’t find the new breed of capital efficient web startups very intriguing. A small group of investors, including Clavier, thought otherwise, and began to invest their own money as angels. They’ve been wildly successful in doing so, and today Clavier’s SoftTech VC firm has investments and holdings in some of the web’s most successful startups, including Bit.ly, Get Satisfaction, Ustream, Twitter, Groupon and Facebook.

Clavier just closed SoftTech VC’s mammoth third fund — a whopping $55 million, which is more than three times larger than the firm’s successful second fund. The new fund will allow Clavier and company to invest in 60 to 65 new companies with an initial investment averaging $400,000.

Watch our interview at Venture Studio with Clavier to find out what he looks for in new investments, why VCs do whatever it takes to help their portfolio companies succeed and why there is no pride in venture capital.

This Venture Studio Classic was originally released on May 16, 2011, after the launch of SoftTech VC Fund III, but prior to it closing.

 

While playing for the Tennessee Valley Vipers in the Arena Football League, and pursuing his dream of playing football professionally, Lewis Howes broke his wrist diving for a pass. He gutted out the rest of the season, playing through his injury, but underwent career-ending surgery in the offseason. For the next six months he wore a full-arm cast and went about trying to answer the lingering question, “What now?”

He didn’t have a back up plan — it was football or nothing.

Following the advice of a mentor, Howes got on LinkedIn. There he discovered a way to build a brand identity for himself around something other than his talent on the field. He became so engaged with LinkedIn that he wrote two books about using the site and today he is in demand, as a speaker, as a sports marketer and as the host of numerous webinar training sessions.

Watch our interview with Howes on Venture Studio and learn how to maximize your presence on LinkedIn, his suggestions and best practices for freelancers and why he recommends all job-seekers start their search on LinkedIn.

While Harvard Business School grads Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna were looking for a business idea, they noticed that the beauty product industry was seriously behind the times on the online retail side. They discovered that some of the biggest pain points for customers included the overwhelming selection of products and the inability to get a hands-on experience with the items before making a purchase. With that in mind, they created Birchbox, a company that mails women a box containing four to five deluxe beauty products every month. Their customers can test out a handful of new products from home and brands benefit from follow up purchases when the samples run out.

Their unique approach to connecting qualified customers with deluxe brands got the attention of New York’s venture capital community and landed them a seed investment of $1.4 million, followed by a series A round of $10.5 million. Having hit their third year’s sales target in just seven months, Birchbox is now scaling their business model rapidly, as well as planning a new subscription offering targeted at men.

Check out our interview on Venture Studio with Beauchamp and listen to her tips on what entrepreneurs should be thinking about before meeting a potential investor, how she and her business partner manage the personal dynamics between co-founders and a look at the logistics of rapidly scaling a company.

After graduating from the famed Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Steve Ellis spent the next decade trying to make it in the music business, while tending bar on the side. According to Ellis, he was one of the lowest earning Wharton grads in the school’s history. He persevered, though, and founded Pump Audio, as a means of distributing his own music online. The site eventually became the de facto online destination for independent artists looking to license their music, and in 2007, Ellis sold Pump Audio to Getty Images for a reported $42 million.

Back as a second-time entrepreneur, Ellis’ latest venture is creating a marketplace for celebrity content where none previously existed. At WhoSay, Ellis is building a platform that simplifies the direct-to-fan relationship, creating greater engagement for the celebrities and influencers who use it.

You can watch the video on Venture Studio.

Based on lean startup methodology, Lean Startup Machine is a weekend-long startup competition, as well as a workshop for educating entrepreneurs on lean startup best practices. Founded by NYU business school drop out Trevor Owens, Lean Startup Machine plays host to a list of tech royalty, who come in to advise participants and teach teams how to understand their customers, quickly build, validate or invalidate their initial assumptions and then persevere or pivot, based on that feedback.

Check out our interview to learn how Lean Startup Machine has helped participants figure out if their ideas are valid and pivot if they’re not. Owens elaborates on why he feels that sometimes the best way to give entrepreneurs a dose of reality is to kick them out of the building and what he looks for when reviewing applications for his program (hint: demonstrate that you’re truly dedicated to being an entrepreneur).

You can watch the video on Venture Studio.

Thanks to Mike Brown, Jr. for hosting our shoot at AOL Ventures.

General Assembly is unique among coworking spaces. In addition to providing a meeting and working space for entrepreneurs, founders Brad Hargreaves, Adam Pritzker, Jake Schwartz and Matthew Brimer deliberately built the space using a campus model. Their goal was to provide a space that went beyond a meet and work place and offered a space for hackers and designers to hone their skills. Their unique, mixed-use building offers a classes in design and and software development in addition to private and open spaces for entrepreneurs to collaborate, work and learn.

In this interview with General Assembly co-founder Brad Hargreaves learn how the space got started, how they designed their curriculum and hear Hargreaves talk about his broader views on the current startup landscape.

You can view the video here on Venture Studio.

 

When a client at his creative firm asked to buy outdoor ad space adjacent to locations of every Bed, Bath and Beyond store in New York City, John Laramie realized how inefficient the outdoor ad buying process was. In order to scout the locations for his client, he had to get on his bicycle and physically pedal to every store in the city. With his legs aching, and sensing that there had to be a smarter way to do it, he founded ADstruc, an online buying platform for outdoor advertising.

Laramie and his team built a viable platform and applied for admission at TechStars Boulder. They were admitted, moved to Colorado for three months and graduated with a term sheet in hand. Though the sheer amount of advice from mentors can be overwhelming, Laramie and his team agree that they are better off after going through the program.

Check out our interview with Laramie and learn about his tips for communicating with investors (hint: build a relationship before you’re ready to ask for financing), what investors look for in a company at the seed stage and how ADstruc educates potential buyers before selling to them.

Just click here to see the interview on Venture Studio.

Thanks to Mike Brown, Jr. for hosting our shoot at AOL Ventures.

 

 

 

 

Look books are the traditional, non-digital, paper catalogs that fashion designers use to show off their designs to magazine writers and editors. Fed up with the cumbersome process of having to look through every page to find the right item, Meggan Crum envisioned a website where she could just click on the items she needed via an online shopping-style web site, and have them delivered to her. She ran the idea by her colleague and good friend, Mandy Tang, who was getting her MBA at Columbia. The two then decided to found The Runthrough, a site that is shaking up the editorial side of the fashion industry.

Check out our interview on Venture Studio with Mandy and Meggan to learn how they launched using Lean Startup principles, the challenges of running a company with two co-founders and how they go their business off the ground. 

CEO Geoff Bartakovics launched Tasting Table in 2008, to bring the world of niche and gourmet dining to discerning foodies. Four years, five cities and one million subscribers later, Tasting Table is becoming the de facto insider’s guide to adventurous dining.

Check out our interview with Bartakovics to find out how Tasting Table is distinguishing itself in the already-crowded online food recommendation market, what he’s learned (the hard way) about proper money management and what some of his most recent challenges have been (hint: the not-so-glamorous side of scaling a company).

You can the watch whole video on Venture Studio.

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When four friends met in business school and discovered they shared a common problem — an aversion to paying hundreds of dollars for eyeglasses — they realized there was a business opportunity in it. The group founded Warby Parker, an innovative startup that aims to revolutionize how people buy eyeglasses. Warby sells directly to the public, via their website, allowing them to bypass retailers and sell their frames and lenses for $95.

  Check out the Venture Studio interview with Dave Gilboa, Warby Parker’s co-founder and co-CEO and learn how the company is disrupting the eyewear industry, similar to the way Netflix crashed the video rental market. Dave also talks about some of the company’s early growing pains, including having to put 20,000 customers on a waiting list and why Google shut down his company’s email servers.

You can watch the interview by clicking on the photo below.