Smart Venture Podcast

Craig Newmark - Founder of Craigslist
Jim McKelvey - Co-founder of Square 
Justin Osofsky - COO of Instagram 
Chris Slowe - CTO of Reddit
Todd Kaplan - CMO of Pepsi
Suzanne Kounkel - CMO of Deloitte
David Siegel - CEO of Meetup
Devin Finzer - Co-founder & CEO of OpenSea
Grant Sanderson - 3Blue1Brown, 4.11 M subscribers on YouTube 
Kevin Rose - Partner at True Ventures, ex-GP at Google Ventures
Robert Rosenberg - 35-Year CEO of Dunkin' Donuts, ex-Board Member @Domino's Pizza 
Monty Moran - ex-CO-CEO Chipotle Mexican Grill
Rebecca Minkoff
Fabrice Grinda - Investor at FJ Labs Portfolio: Alibaba
Paul Madera - Co-founder & General Partner at Meritech Capital. Portfolio: Facebook, Salesforce
Rob Chesnut - ex Chief Ethics Officer @Airbnb, SVP @eBay & Chegg
Olivia Nottebohm - CRO of Notion, ex COO of Dropbox, ex VP at Google 
Marvin Chow - VP of Google 
Erin Egan - VP & Chief Privacy Officer, Public Policy at Facebook / Meta
Ethan Evans - VP of Amazon
Sanchan Saxena - VP of Coinbase
David Cowan - Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners Portfolio: LinkedIn, Twitch
Promod Haque - Senior Managing Partner at Norwest Venture Partners
Terry McGuire - Co-founder & Partner at Polaris Partners
Katelin Holloway - Partner at Seven Seven Six, ex VP at Reddit 
Mark Roberge - Co-founder & Managing Partner @Stage2Capital, former CRO at HubSpot
Kim Scott - NYT&WSJ Bestselling Author of Radical Candor, ex-CEO coach of Dropbox &Twitter  
Chris Voss - WSJ Bestselling Author 
Nicholas Thompson - CEO of The Atlantic, ex Editor in Chief of Wired

+more

Ranked by Listen Notes as one of the top 1.5% most popular shows globally
Listenership 100 + countries 
Nominated by Asian American Podcasters Association for Golden Crane Awards

Apple:https://apple.co/3d6bGea
Spotify: http://bit.ly/gracegong
Website: https://www.smartventurepod.com
YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube

Founder, CEO & Host

Smart Venture Media

SVP's past crypto, NFT, Web3 guests including:
Founder, CEO of OpenSea - Devin Finzer 
Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity)'s Co-founder & Groth Lead - Jiho Jeffrey Zirlin
Partner at True Ventures, founder of Moonbirds, PROOF Collective 
Founders, CEO, COO of Magic Eden - Jack Lu and Zhuoxun Yin 
Managing Partner of SuperLayer, Founding CEO of Rally, Forte, Kabam - Kevin Chou
Co-founder & CEO of Republic - Kendrick Nguyen 
Dapper Lab's Dapper Collectives CEO, Founder of Brud & Friends with Benefits DAO - Trevor McFedries
Partner at #Hashed, Investor in Axie Infinity, dYdX, ZKSync - Baek Kim
Alliance DAO's Founder, CEO (Core Contributor) - Imran Khan 
Abra's Founder & CEO - Bill Barhydt 
EToro's Funder & CEO - Yoni Assia 
CoinFund's Founder & CEO - Jake Brukhman
Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures - Moritz Baier-Lentz
VP of Coinbase - Sanchan S Saxena
VP of OpenSea - Shiva Rajaraman
President of Vayner3 - Avery Akkineni 
Cooper Turley, Music NFT Collector, investor in Sound, Catalog, Royal, advisor at Audius
Index Ventures' Partner - Rex Woodbury
General Catalyst's Managing Director - Niko Bonatsos
Founder & CEO of Sino Global Capital - Matthew Graham
General Partner of M13 - Latif Peracha
Investor at M13 - Mark Grace

Founder & CEO

Floodgate

Building Breakthroughs Cohort Member 

Sigma Delta Partners Investment

Capital Markets Analyst

Summit Investment Management Consulting Co., Ltd

Investment Manager

Thrive Global

https://thriveglobal.com/authors/grace-gong/

Still a contributor

Contributor

How to Be a VC

HowToBeAVC.com (中英文版本兼有Read in English and Chinese.)

I recently had the privilege of chatting with top venture capitalists who were featured on the Forbes Midas List. They all shared their amazing stories and experiences on how they started and succeeded in investing. They were not only respectable in terms of their successful careers, but they also very generously shared their secrets to success. I believe we can all learn tremendously from their experiences. 

People who were featured in my book include Dick Kramlich,  Mike Maples, Mitch Lasky, Brad Feld, David Cowan, Bing Gordon, Paul Madera, Asheem Chandna, Sandy Miller, Promod Haque, Ray Rothrock, Terry McGuire, Ann Miura-Ko, Dan Levitan, Jim Robinson, Chalres Moldow,  Robert Nelsen, Deborah A. Farrington, Ross Jaffe, Jim Boettcher, Rich Levandov and Tim Chang.

Check out my new book: https://www.amazon.com/How-VC-SILICON-VALLEY-INVESTORS-ebook/dp/B078KX8XXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516090017&sr=8-1&keywords=grace+gong 

More info: https://www.howtobeavc.com/

#venturecapitalist

Author of #1 New Release on Amazon Venture Capital 

TheLastKeyToSuccess

• If you want to learn from people who successfully raised fundings from top investors like Mark Cuban, Jerry Yang, from people who give Ted talks,  get invited to the World Economic Forum, who are on the list of Forbes 30 under 30,  this is the book for you. 
•HowToBeAVC.com 
• Featured on Thrive Global 
About my book: goo.gl/xHe9mq
Fun tips for people working in tech: goo.gl/ryqx1m

Author of a modern version of "founders at work" (tech investing) 

Burlingame Point LLC

Genzon Group (China) tenants included Microsoft and Tencent, etc; 
San Francisco tenants included Amazon/ Twitch.tv, Groupon, etc

• Assisted in leading a cross-functional team to complete acquisition of real estate properties; collaborated with bankers, trade specialists and real estate financiers to meet the company’s global expansion needs. (Reports by Sillicon Valley Business Journal goo.gl/JMNKiA & goo.gl/aQHnEp)

Management Associate (Directly report to the CEO and CFO)

SkyOcean Holding https://www.linkedin.com/redir/general-malware-page?url=Co%2eLTD

• Assisted the managing director in building DreamEast Pictures Production company which produced the first Chinese produced American Animation TV Series, Valt, the Wonder Deer.

Business Development Intern (entertainment + real estate investing)

2023: CEO of Smart Venture Media (YouTube, TikTok, Newsletter)
2022: Founder & CEO of SVC (LinkedIn Top Voice in Finance, LinkedIn's creator accelerator 1st cohort, 1.5M+ impressions on LinkedIn; clients including big tech & unicorn startups, NFT.NYC speaker)
2021: CEO of Smart Venture Media (monetized, joined venture cohorts)
2020: Podcast - Smart Venture Podcast (top 1.5% among 2.9 M podcasts globally, listeners in 100+ countries)
2019: Real Estate PE in Beijing and Shanghai 
2018: VC in Shanghai 
2017: Book 2 - How To Be A VC (No.1 new release on Amazon VC category; features 22 investors on the Forbes Midas List - investors who invested in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apple, etc) 
2016: Book 1 - The Last Key To Success (features 21 founders on Forbes 30 under 30)
2014: Master's + Real Estate Acquisition firm
2013: UIUC

📚+🎤 +🍹gracegong.com 
connect everywhere: https://linktr.ee/gracegong115

Over the past 2.5 years, I have:

Quit my investing job and became a full-time content creator. 
Grew a podcast from scratch to an audience of 110+ countries. 
Having weekly conversations with C-Level executives at prominent companies, top investors, and unicorn founders. 

All of these things have taught me a tremendous amount about what matters in life and what doesn’t.

These are my new four rules for life:

1. Stop looking at what other people are doing, do what's right for you! 

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses; just because something looks easy for that person doesn't means it will be easy for you. Focus on what you have and what you can offer! 

2. No one can teach you exactly HOW to do something; you must figure it out for yourself. 

No one is responsible/ capable of teaching you EVERYTHING about a subject. There are so many nuances to executing a plan, and only YOU know all the context. 

3. Relationship is a two-way street. 

Many people ask me about how to get their dream podcast guests, build a world-class network, and connect them with so and so. 

Relationships are not baseball cards; you can't just buy and trade them. 

It's also about serendipity. Your energy with whom you meet is very different person by person. 

Instead of aggressively approaching everyone, maybe focus on what you have, and your niche, and grow from there. 

Remember, regardless of who you are, you have something to offer. 

4. The more you give, the more you get! 

Many people ask me how I started my podcast and how to connect with leaders. 

Zero people asked me why I did it. The truth is I did it because I wanted to help people who are like my younger self across the world. 

Give them the resources and knowledge they need to start their company in whichever country they are in and make an impact in their life. 

Maybe someone from listening to my show can be the next Elon Musk, Melanie Perkins, or Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast). 

Superficial stuff comes and goes. The only things that last are the stories, lessons, and friends you made along the way. 

#career #tech #vc #creator #founder

Grace Gong

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Over the past 10 years, I have:

- Written books, hosted a top podcast, chatted with top CEOs 
- Worked in venture capital
- Started my own company 

All of these things have taught me a tremendous amount about what matters in career development, and what doesn’t.

These are my new 4 rules for starters who want to have a good career:

1. Do free work 

I can't highlight how many opportunities professionally came from things I did without being paid. 

If you are in a career transition, or recently graduated from college. Start "breaking into an industry" by volunteering your time to do stuff that's unpaid. Build a portfolio and go from there. 

2. Say yes to everything 

Especially at the very beginning of your career, go to everything you got an invitation in. 

Don't be lazy, just show up! 

If you know absolutely no one at that party/ conference/ events, show up! You will get used to being uncomfortable and enjoy meeting new people. 

3. You made a mistake? No one cares 

Simply put, no one cares about you more than you care about you. 

Don't worry if you made a mistake in a presentation/ talk/ said something at a party. 

Sorry to break it to you, but NO ONE CARES besides you. 

No one will remember your mistake. 

4. Numbers game 

Life is a numbers game! 

If you got a "no" from someone, move on to the next! 

Try 100x whatever you are doing and you will get the results. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk! 

#careerdevelopment #realtalk #vc #startup #tech 

Startup advice to my 21-year-old self  
 
- Gone to Ivy League school/ work at Google is NOT a must for success, you don't need to hit a checklist then think about starting a company  
 
- You don't have to live in a major city, you can build a network ONLINE 
 
- It's ok to know nothing, everyone start with knowing nothing...  
 
- The world is not fair. Better to run than curse the road 

What would be your advice for your younger self? 
 
 #entrepreneurship #startup #vc #investor #silliconvalley

Thank you, Vertex Ventures US, this made my day!! 🥞🚀💛

Don't worry, Web3 startup pitches will be replaced by AI ones this year 🤣

#vertexventures #vertexventuresUS #VC #startup #web3

If you are NOT at SXSW, and wanna grow your following and your business, join us tomorrow! 
GUEST: Ben Awad   TIKTOK (764K+) YOUTUBE (474K+) 
COFOUNDER @ VOIDPET 

TOPICS: 
1. How to grow on different platforms as a creator 
2. How to create content while being a founder and working on tech 
3. As a business, how to collaborate with the best creators on different platforms to grow your business 

Pink Lee, Andrea Francioli and 76 other attendees

GROWING ON MULTIPLE PLATFORMS AS A TECH CREATOR

🌸Happy International Women's day!🌸

To celebrate this day, here are 10 powerful lessons I've learned from world-class female leaders and investors through my conversations with them on Smart Venture Podcast.

1) Don't let fear stop you. What would you do if you weren't afraid? - Erin Egan 

2) Make choices of what needs to be good and what needs to be great. Sometimes good is good enough. - Suzanne Kounkel

3) Have the curiosity to learn. - Ekta Chopra

4) Listening is key to leading a company. - Olivia Nottebohm

5) Instead of multitasking, being present is very important. - Nicole Quinn 

6) Have a mission and vision that's beyond making money. - Katelin Holloway

7) You can't control what people do to you, but you can control how you respond. - Shellye Archambeau

8) Always make the most out of your opportunities. - Iris Choi

9) Management is about helping people to achieve their dreams. - Kim Scott 

10) Communication and collaboration are core to the business. - Melissa Cohen

Although there are so many unique challenges I have faced as a female entrepreneur, looking at the people who have been to a place where I want to get to gives me the courage and confidence to go after my wildest dreams. 

What have you learned from the women around you? 

#IWD2023 #vc #venturecapital #startup #tech  #DigitALL

💼 Job hunting can be hard. 

🤖Use these 5 AI tools to land your next job 10x faster! 

Here is the step by step: 

Turn on your notification bell (Grace Gong) for for more AI hacks 🔔

#ai #artificialintelligence #startup #job #jobsearch 
Browse AI, Jobscan, Compose AI, Tome, Rewind AI

👯Are you ready for your AI BFF? 

Snap Inc. has introduced "My AI," a chatbot powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT. Currently, it is only available to Snapchat Plus subscribers, but the company intends to make it accessible to all of its 750 million monthly users on the app.

Unlike traditional chatbots, My AI is designed to be a friend inside Snapchat, rather than just a search engine. Additionally, the chatbot is trained to follow Snap's safety and trust guidelines to ensure that it only provides appropriate and respectful responses.

The company plans to continually improve the bot based on user feedback. It's an exciting development in the world of artificial intelligence, where AI chatbots will become a part of our daily lives, just like another person.

Are you ready to have an AI BFF? 

Follow me for more tech news.

#artificialintelligence #ai #snap #snapchat #myai 

Monday reminder: if you are getting tons of "Yes," it means you aren't asking enough! 

Shoot higher! 🏀 

#startup #founder #vc #funding #entrepreneur

The biggest misconception in startup/life is "build the best product, and your customer will find you."

#Entrepreneurship #startup #VC #tech #investor

Finding a mentor in your industry willing to take you under their wing and share what they know with you without gate keeping is pretty much winning the lottery. 
 
NOT winning the lottery is NORMAL; you can still win if you leverage what you have and do what you can. 
 
#Entrepreneurship #startup #VC #tech #investor

Being a founder = constantly thinking if your idea is crazy and stupid, until one day someone purchased your product with their money...  
 
#Entrepreneurship #startup #VC #tech #investor

3 habits the best founders live by:

1. Prioritizing to accomplish the ONE most important thing that day. 
2. Train and delegate tasks to the right person on the team. 
3. Have the best-content diet. 

If you still need to get one? 

Check out Smart Venture Media's newsletter for the top 5 weekly takeaways from interviews with world-class leaders.  This week ft the CMO of Deloitte, Suzanne Kounkel 

https://lnkd.in/desfcKSA

Greatness is a daily choice.

#investing #startup #business #vc #venturecapital #founder

Open article: How to achieve your career goals ft. Deloitte’s CMO, Suzanne Kounkel by smartventure.substack.com

How to achieve your career goals ft. Deloitte’s CMO, Suzanne Kounkel

If you really want to embrace the cancel culture, cancel the meetings.  
 
If you are in a meeting, you are not building.  
 
If you are not building, your company is dying.  
 
meeting = dying 
 
#Entrepreneurship #startup #VC #tech #investor

Do you wanna turn your couple stores into a national business? 

Motivating people is key. 

I chatted with the former Co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill MONTY MORAN and got him to share his secret on motivating people. 

#Chipotle #CEO #management #startup #VC 

You can become better in marketing if you …

1. Understand finance, how budgets are spent, and how revenue happens. 

2. If you are really good at certain things, don't always try to improve everything else. Instead, lean into what you are really good at. 

3. For every company you go to, you have to learn about their industry and be grounded in research and insights. 

4. The best possible outcome comes from utilizing the best of everyone's thinking. 

Congrats.

You are better at marketing. 

To learn more, check out our newsletter ft. Marvin Chow, VP of Marketing at Google. 

#marketing #vp #google #founder #vc 

Some underrated insights on managing a team: 

1. Everyone wants to be seen, valued, and understood. 
2. Always do the best you can with what you've got. 
3. When facing a new situation, ask obvious questions. 

Lead a team long enough; you’ll learn these to be true.

Check out this week's newsletter of my conversation with the former Co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, MONTY MORAN

https://lnkd.in/g3SnTe_Z

#leadership #founder #startup #vc #ceo 

Open article: What makes a great leader ft. former co-CEO at Chipotle, Monty Moran by smartventure.substack.com

What makes a great leader ft. former co-CEO at Chipotle, Monty Moran

🥤🤯PepsiCo’s net worth is over 242 BILLION dollars. 

They are killing it in the marketing department! 

I asked the CMO of PepsiCo Todd Kaplan how he plans the company’s marketing strategy. 

Check it out:

Follow me for more leader interviews!

#marketing #cmo #ceo #founder #VC 


🤯 This company has over 1.3 Billion users globally. 

The team that runs it is super effective. 

Do you wanna know how they hire and retain talent? I asked the COO of Instagram (Justin Osofsky) and here is what he said...

Follow me for more leader interviews!

#instagram #VC #startup #founder #coo 

Important things when starting a company: 
 
- Idea 
- Research  
- Execution  
- Test rapidly 
- Build a team  
- Be persistent  
- Cold call skills  
- Manage a team 
- Build a network  
- Study your market   
- Challenge yourself  
 
#Entrepreneurship #startup #VC #tech #investor

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