Growthcap Insights

In this episode, we speak with Michael Rovito, the President of Level Home and Dwelo.  Level is redefining the smart home experience with revolutionary, award-winning smart access products. With the addition of Dwelo, Level now offers integrated hardware and software solutions for all residential properties. The Company is backed by Walmart, Cox Communications, Lennar Corporation, and other notable investors. Prior to Dwelo, Michael was the General Manager of InfiSense where he led the conceptualization and development of an IoT solution for energy efficiency measurement and verification.   I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  

In this episode, we speak with Ariel Katz, the CEO and Co-Founder of H1, which provides authoritative information about every Healthcare Provider (HCP) worldwide, including academics, clinicians, and allied health professionals.  Life sciences companies, hospitals and health systems use this platform to connect with established as well as emerging HCPs. The Company is backed by Altimeter Capital, IVP, Menlo Ventures, Goldman Sachs and other notable investors. Prior to H1, Ariel was the CEO and Co-Founder of ResearchConnection, the first searchable online database for all of the ongoing university research initiatives and research professors across the country.  I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode, we speak with Matt Brown, Founder, CEO and Chairman of CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to and education about alternative investment funds and products. CAIS is backed by Apollo, Franklin Templeton, and Motive Partners, among others. Matt has spent over 30 years at the intersection of wealth management, alternative investments, and platform design. He began his career as a financial advisor at Shearson Lehman Brothers and Smith Barney. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  

In this episode, we speak with Tre Sayle, a Partner at Thoma Bravo, where he heads the firm’s growth investment strategy. Tre led growth investments in FTX, Illumio, and ServiceTitan along with several other notable companies. Thoma Bravo is one of the most successful software investment firms in the world with over 40 years of experience and more than $100 billion in assets under management. Throughout Tre’s 16-plus-year career at Thoma Bravo, he has been instrumental in orchestrating 22 deals representing approximately $50 billion of transaction value. Tre was named a Top 25 Software Investor by GrowthCap in 2021. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode, we speak with Jack Kokko, CEO and founder of AlphaSense, a market intelligence platform used by the world’s leading companies and financial institutions.  AlphaSense is trusted by over 1,600 enterprise customers, including a majority of the S&P 100. The company is backed by Goldman Sachs, Viking Global, Morgan Stanley, and many other notable investors. Before AlphaSense, Jack was the founding CEO of Silecs, building the company into a global supplier of advanced materials, improving the performance of billions of semiconductor devices used in mass market electronics. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode, we speak with Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox, a financial platform for small businesses.  The company has connected with nearly 300,000 businesses, unlocked over $2 billion in working capital, and invested over $100 million into its AI platform, gaining deep insights into the small business ecosystem. Fundbox is backed by Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, MUFG Innovation Partners, BNY Mellon, Allianz, and others. Prior to joining Fundbox as COO in 2016, Prashant served as SVP, Advertising at Yahoo! and Chief Product Officer at Flurry.  He was also the Senior Director of Product Management at Facebook and a Product Management Director at Google. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode, we speak with Brian Saunders, the founder and CEO of BigTime Software, a company with more than 2,000 customers that has created and marketed software responsible for tracking over $2 billion in professional time each year. The company is backed by Vista Equity Partners, Wavecrest Growth Partners and others. Prior to founding BigTime Software in 2002, Brian was the CEO of DaVinci Software, a software strategy and consulting firm that was named one of Crain's Top 25 software companies in 2000, shortly before being acquired by LiquidThinking in early 2001.  We hope you enjoy the show.  

In this episode, we speak with Rob Gurzeev, CEO and Co-Founder of CyCognito, a cybersecurity company that enables customers to take full control over their attack surface by uncovering and eliminating critical security risks.  CyCognito’s investors include Accel, Lightspeed, Sorenson and The Westly Group among others.  Previously, Rob served as Head of Offensive Security for C4, where he built an intelligence-gathering platform for government agencies.  He began his career with the Israeli Intelligence Corps where he rose to CTO of the product department.  We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode, we speak with Jason Fiedler, Managing Partner at Left Lane Capital, a venture capital firm investing in high-growth, high-retention consumer and internet technology businesses. Jason joined the firm in 2019 after working previously as a Principal at Red Sea Ventures. Currently, he serves on the board of directors of Talkiatry, Smalls, and Tovala. He is also involved in investments including Abound, Renegade Insurance, and Jackpocket. We hope you enjoy the show.  

In this episode, we speak with Ed Boyajian, President and CEO of EDB, a global data software company serving over 4,000 customers, including leading financial services, government, media and communications, and information technology organizations. EDB is backed by Great Hill Partners. Ed has steered the company through 45 consecutive quarters of recurring revenue growth. A pioneer of the open source software business model, Ed was previously the GM of Red Hat North America. Ed is an Army veteran and a board member for Project Citizenship, a nonprofit that helps permanent U.S. residents become citizens. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Robert M. Lee, the Founder and CEO of Dragos, which is an industrial cybersecurity company that detects and responds to threats in industrial controls systems.  Dragos has raised over $360 million and is backed by Blackrock, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Canaan Partners, and others. Robert M. Lee is a recognized pioneer in the industrial security incident response and threat intelligence community. He gained his start in security as a U.S. Air Force Cyber Warfare Operations Officer. He went on to build the industrial community’s first dedicated monitoring and incident response class at the SANS Institute. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Ron Schneidermann, the CEO of AllTrails, which is the most trusted and used outdoors platform in the world.  The Company is frequently ranked as a top-5 Health and Fitness app and has been downloaded by over 40 million people worldwide. AllTrails has raised over $225 million in funding and is backed by Permira, Spectrum Equity, and others. Prior to joining the Company as COO in 2015, Ron was the Head of Growth at Yelp and before that was Co-founder and CMO of Liftopia.  He began his career as a business consultant with Accenture. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Lawrence Calcano, the Chairman and CEO of iCapital, which has transformed the way the wealth management, banking, and asset management industries facilitate access to private market investments. Lawrence began advising and working with iCapital shortly after its 2013 founding to lead key strategic and business development initiatives. He was a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he spent 17 years, most recently serving as the co-head of the Global Technology Banking Group. As of December 31, 2021, iCapital services more than $108 billion in client assets across more than 900 funds. Employing more than 700 people globally, iCapital is headquartered in New York and has offices across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia.  

In this episode we chat with Peter Christodoulo, a Partner at Francisco Partners, a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Peter joined the firm in 2008 and focuses on investments in the financial technology and application software sectors.  He currently serves on the board of directors of Allston Trading, Dynamo, NMI, Paradigm, PayScale, SourceScrub, TS Imagine, and Verifone, and is also involved in FP's investments in Betterment, GAINSystems, NextCapital, Prosper Marketplace and Renaissance.  We chat about how he approaches his relationship with each company he invests in, the value he and the firm bring to management teams and FP’s commitment to ESG, among other topics. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Kabir Shahani, the CEO of Amperity, a high-growth SaaS company that enables organizations to take control of their customer data, systematically improve customer relationships, and foster brand loyalty. Prior to co-founding Amperity, Kabir led the commercial software division for IMS, following the acquisition of Appature, a company he co-founded in 2007. He’s raised over $180 million from notable investment firms including Tiger Global Management, Madrona Venture Group and HighSage Ventures. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Borya Shakhnovich, the CEO of airSlate, a global SaaS technology company that provides no-code business process automation, e-signature and document management solutions. He’s raised over $130 million dollars from notable firms including Morgan Stanley, General Catalyst and Silicon Valley Bank.  We talk about the near ubiquitous use cases for the airSlate solution, Borya’s journey as an entrepreneur and the value his investors have provided. The company generates over $100 million in revenue. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Gabriel Dalporto, the CEO of Udacity, the market leader in digital talent transformation.   Udacity works with the world’s leading companies to teach labor forces critical tech skills through its powerful and flexible digital education platform.  Gabe was previously at the helm of LendingTree having led one of the biggest and most successful turnaround and growth stories of a public company in the past decade. He earned graduate and undergraduate degrees in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and the University of Florida, respectively. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Angela Ceresnie, the CEO of Climb, which is an innovative student lending platform that makes career creation and transformation more accessible, affordable, and accountable.  The company is driven by a mission to empower individuals to unlock their career potential – no matter what their credit profile. Angela first joined Climb as the Chief Operating Officer in 2016 and quickly helped shape the operations, culture, and future of Climb, earning her the role of CEO in 2018. Prior to Climb, she co-founded and was COO/CFO of Orchard Platform — a provider of software and data products offered to institutional investors to purchase loans from marketplace lenders.  Orchard was acquired by Kabbage. Earlier in her career, Angela spent nine years running credit risk analytics teams at American Express and Citibank. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with Amr Kronfol, a Managing Director at Warburg Pincus, one of the most well-known private equity institutions in the world.  Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 20 private equity funds, which have invested more than $97 billion in over 960 companies in more than 40 countries.  Amr makes growth investments at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and consumer/retail.  We chat about what he looks for in a CEO, the value that Warburg provides to its portfolio companies, and the areas he is most focused on in the healthcare sector. We hope you enjoy the show.  

Welcome to the GrowthCap podcast where we chat with CEOs, investors and other key industry leaders to uncover insights and strategies for accelerating growth and succeeding in business. I am your host RJ Lumba. In this episode we chat with Greg Marsh, the CEO and Founder of KeyMe, which has disrupted the locksmith industry becoming the nation's most trusted 24-hour emergency locksmith.  The company also has a network of self-service key duplication kiosks located in thousands of retail locations across the country.   Greg shares his insights into the evolution of KeyMe, his entrepreneurial journey and the massive potential that lies ahead for the company.    KeyMe is growing rapidly and has raised over $150M from top-tier investors including Battery Ventures, BlackRock, Brentwood, Comcast Ventures and others. We hope you enjoy the show.