Welcome to The Vitalize Podcast by Vitalize Venture Capital

Episodes

July 14, 2022

Amplifying Underrepresented Voices, Raising a $52M Fund, and Being a Solo Latina GP in the Midwest, with Samara Hernandez of Chingona Ventures

Justin Gordon (justingordon212) talks with (@SamaraMHernandz), the Founding Partner at Chingona Ventures, an institutionally-backed pre-seed stage fund investing in the next generation of badass founders building technology …
July 7, 2022

Raising a $25M Fund, Implementing a Narrow Investment Thesis, and Hawke Ventures’ Unique Portfolio Construction Strategy, with Drew Leahy

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Drew Leahy, Managing Partner at Hawke Ventures (@hawkeventures), an early stage consumer and B2B marketing technology fund. He is also the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Hawke Media.
June 30, 2022

Organic Growth Loops, Customer-Led Product Development, Raising a $13.5M Series A, and the No-Code Landscape, with Mariam Hakobyan of Softr

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Mariam Hakobyan (@mariam_hakobyan), Co-Founder and CEO of Softr, the easiest no-code platform for building custom apps and portals, in minutes. With Softr, you can build client por…
June 23, 2022

Building a Team that Resembles Planet Earth, Distributed Work as a Global Resilience Strategy, and Becoming a Unicorn in Under Two Years, with Oyster’s Tony Jamous

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Tony Jamous (@jamingo), the CEO and founder of Oyster, a Global Employment Platform that empowers companies to hire, pay, and care for team members wherever they are in the world. …
June 17, 2022

The Work Revolution: Inside VITALIZE's Investment Focus with Gale Wilkinson

In this episode, Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks again with Gale Wilkinson (@galeforceVC), Founder and Managing Partner at VITALIZE, a seed-stage venture fund and angel community investing in The Work Revolution. In t…
June 9, 2022

Derisking Deep Tech, Managing a Broad Thesis, and Evaluating Credibility in Complex Industries, with Maryanna Saenko of Future Ventures

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Maryanna Saenko (@FutureSaenko), Co-Founder and Partner at Future Ventures, which supports passionate founders who are forging the future. For the past 25 years, Future Ventures ha…
June 3, 2022

VITALIZE Throwback: Accessing Founder Resources, Executing Capital Allocation, and Building in Public, with Fiveable’s Amanda DoAmaral

This is a special episode pulled from the VITALIZE vault—back when The VITALIZE Podcast was Talking Venture! Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Amanda DoAmaral (@AmandaDoAmanda), Co-Founder of Fiveable, a social lea…
May 26, 2022

The VITALIZE Team on Changing the Face of Venture by Making Investing Accessible to Everyone, and the Less Glamorous Side of Working in VC

In this special episode, Justin Gordon (@justingordon212), the Director of Marketing with VITALIZE Venture Capital, interviews three key VITALIZE team members, Founder and Managing Partner Gale Wilkinson (@galeforceVC), Part…
May 19, 2022

Investing in Emerging Markets, Lessons from Raising a Second Fund, and the Story behind Those Twitter Threads, with Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Elizabeth Yin (@dunkhippo33), Co-Founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, a VC fund that invests in pre-seed software startups.
May 12, 2022

Designing the Future of Human Connection in the Metaverse and Sourcing Web3 Talent, with NOWHERE Founder Jon Morris

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Jon Morris (@yojonmorris), Founder and CEO of NOWHERE, an online metaverse platform that aims to revolutionize gathering with patent pending video presence technology that allows s…
May 5, 2022

Reducing Meeting Times by 70% and Increasing Your Team’s Innovation by Reimagining Collaboration, with Balloon’s Amanda Greenberg

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Amanda Greenberg (@AKGreenberg), Co-Founder and CEO of Balloon, a research-backed platform that unlocks ideas and feedback from a group by eliminating groupthink and amplifying voi…
April 29, 2022

Eliminating the Geo-Lottery via Turing’s Intelligent Talent Cloud, with Jonathan Siddarth | Future of Work

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Jonathan Siddarth (@jonsidd), CEO and Founder of Turing, a company on a mission to help unleash the world’s untapped potential. Turing’s hiring platform combines planetary reach an…
April 21, 2022

The Value of Investing Across Stages and Sectors, with Deena Shakir of Lux Capital | Startup Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Deena Shakir (@deenashakir), Partner at Lux Capital, a venture capital firm that makes long-term bets on contrarians and outsiders. At Lux, Deena invests in transformative technolo…
April 14, 2022

A Serendipitous Path to Democratizing Data Storytelling, with Alex Damianou of OpenAxis | Future of Work

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Alex Damianou (@alex_damianou), Founder and CEO of OpenAxis, a company that’s simplifying and democratizing the data storytelling process.
April 7, 2022

Low Lift, High Impact: Changing the Investing Narrative, with Lolita Taub of Ganas Ventures | Startup Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Lolita Taub (@lolitataub), GP at Ganas Ventures where she invests in pre-seed and seed community-driven companies in the US and Latin America. She’s on a mission to change the narr…
March 31, 2022

Running Lean and Building in the Right Direction, with Jennifer Smith of Scribe | Future of Work

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Jennifer Smith (@scribeceo), Co-Founder and CEO of Scribe, a software tool that makes it easy to learn from your most productive people without slowing them down by automatically g…
March 24, 2022

How to Stay Laser Focused in the Rapidly Changing VC Industry, with Jonathan Heiliger of Vertex Ventures US | Startup Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Jonathan Heiliger (@heiligerj), General Partner at Vertex Ventures US, a boutique fund that invests early (often the first!) in enterprising founders who make it possible for new a…
March 17, 2022

Taking AgeTech from Niche to Mainstream, with Max Zamkow of Third Act Ventures | Startup Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Max Zamkow (@MZamkow), Managing Partner at Third Act Ventures, an early-stage venture firm investing in AgeTech - technology for older adults and their caregivers. Third Act Ventur…
March 10, 2022

Fusing Incubating and Investing to Unleash Human Potential, with Peter Liu of Revelry Venture Partners | Startup Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Peter Liu (@NewOrleansVC), Managing Partner at Revelry Venture Partners. RVP is a full service venture capital firm with a unique model that includes both a fund investing in pre-s…
March 3, 2022

Demystifying Investing with Nik Talreja of Sydecar, an Onramp to Fluid Capital Allocation in Venture | Startup Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Nik Talreja (@niktalreja), Co-Founder and CEO of Sydecar, a platform making smart software and providing superior service to support a new generation of investors and enablers. Syd…
Feb. 17, 2022

Angel Investing: Manifestation Mindset and the Intersection of Grit and Ambition, with Bo Ren of Silicon Valley Bank

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Bo Ren (@Bosefina), Director of Early Stage Startups at Silicon Valley Bank. Bo is a liberal arts thinker, PM turned investor, and incubation partner.
Feb. 10, 2022

Future of Work: Simplifying Decision-Making to Revitalize the Customer Service Experience, with Juan Jaysingh of Zingtree

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Juan Jaysingh (@JuanJaysingh), President and CEO at Zingtree, leading the company’s mission to transform complex processes into clear actions for businesses around the globe.
Feb. 3, 2022

Startup Investing: Heather Hartnett of Human Ventures, on Running a Business Creation Platform and Operationalizing Networks

Justin Gordon (justingordon212) talks with Heather Hartnett (@HeatherHartnett), General Partner and CEO of Human Ventures, where she and her team have created one of New York’s premiere startup studios, incubators and early …
Feb. 1, 2022

Future of Work: Career Navigating, Community Building, and Personal Branding, with Ruben Harris of Career Karma

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Ruben Harris (@rubenharris), Co-Founder and CEO of Career Karma, which is helping over 1 million workers navigate their careers every month through advice and coaching.