How to Build Resilient Companies, Supporting Mental Health to Prevent Founder Flight, and Running a Concentrated Portfolio, with Matt Cohen of Ripple Ventures

The VITALIZE Podcast: Venture Capital | Startups | Angel Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Matt Cohen (@mattybcohen), Founder and Managing Partner at Ripple Ventures, an early-stage venture fund seeking investments in B2B SaaS Startups in various industries ripe for disruption with a focus on workflow automation and data & analytics platforms. As serial entrepreneurs, they are actively involved with all their investments and aren't scared to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. They support entrepreneurs who seek to revolutionize the most competitive global industries by solving difficult problems with the most unique solutions. Their industry focuses include: enterprise software, healthcare technology, and industrial technology. Matt founded Ripple Ventures in 2018 to help entrepreneurs and start-ups learn from his experiences while giving them more than just capital to succeed. With their 'Operators-First' approach, they work with companies every day not just every quarter.

Matt Cohen is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist focused on early-stage technology. He knows the risk entrepreneurs take when starting a company, and understands what helps them succeed at the earliest stage. He has hands-on experience in selling enterprise SaaS solutions to the top financial institutions globally, and sees the importance of working with trusted advisors and partners early to help scale a business faster.

Website: Ripple Ventures

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matt-cohen1/

Twitter: @mattybcohen

Podcast: Tank Talks

Show Notes:

• How the many facets of Ripple were developed
• How to build resilient companies
• The decision to build The Tank – a physical incubator space
• How the pandemic impacted The Tank
• How Matt is supporting their founders with mental health
• Building strong infrastructure to withstand unstable markets
• Transparency in their relationship with LPs
• Their concentrated portfolio and deployment strategy through Fund III
• Their Ripple Fellowship Program to support underrepresented founders and future funders
• Matt’s perspective on the future of Web3
• Matt’s family office and how he began investing as an LP

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series.

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors.

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital.

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/