Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we have Evan Stewart, Co-Founder & CEO of Basewell. Basewell is an enterprise SaaS startup which analyzes and tracks how employee training initiatives impact OKRs across every department in one single platform. 

An entrepreneur at heart, Evan scaled and successfully sold his own real estate company and consulted with different tech startups in America & Canada prior to founding Basewell. Now he is innovating the future of work and building tools that help people work better.

Topics Covered by Evan Stewart in this Episode:

• Overview of what Basewell is in a nutshell and its founding story
• How did Evan’s personal experience inspired Basewell’s product decision 
• What problem is Basewell solving and why Evan thinks it's a huge opportunity now
• How does Basewell’s software solve the work productivity issue and what metrics are used to drive desired outcomes 
• The short-term and long-term vision for Basewell
• Basewell’s Idea customer profile and its initial customer acquisition strategy
• Basewell’s initial growth plan and path to achieve the desired product network-effect
• Evan discussing Basewell’s current fundraising round and his plans to grow and scale
• Evan summarizing lesson learned and big takeaway so far in his entrepreneurial journey as a second time founder

Connect with Evan:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/heyecs

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evst/

Check out Basewell:

Company Website - https://www.basewell.com/

Crunchbase - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/basewell

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.

Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we have Justin Chaddick, Co-Founder & CEO of Treepost. Justin operates a marketplace which curates the highest quality hemp and CBD brands for consumers. With an impressive academic background in earth science and biology from Georgia Tech, Justin is determined to bring transparency and trust in the hemp buying process by showing what each product has been tested for and what notable certifications each brand has obtained. 

Topics Covered by Justin Chaddick in this Episode:

• Overview of what Treepost is in a nutshell and its founding story
• Industry background of the $24billion Cannabinoids/Hemp products market
• What problem is Treepost solving and why Justin thinks it's a huge opportunity
• Why Treepost is needed to help bring trust, transparency and personalization in the hemp buying process
• Personal story of how the CBD buying experience of one of Justin's close friends inspired his product decision 
• How does Treepost differentiate and compete with other e-commerce giants such as Amazon
• The short-term and long-term vision for Treepost as the marketplace for high quality hemp and CBD brands for consumers
• Treepost’s monetization and seller partnership strategy 
• Justin highlighting the sell-side challenges in successfully seeding a marketplace
• Treepost’s initial marketplace growth phase and path to achieve the network-effect
• Justin discussing Treepost’s current fundraising round and his plans to grow and scale
• Justin summarizing lesson learned and big takeaway so far in his entrepreneurial journey as a first time founder

Connect with Justin:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/JustinChaddick

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-chaddick/

Check out Treepost:

Company Website - https://treepost.io/

Crunchbase - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/treepost

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.

Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we have Conrad Cornell, Co-Founder & CEO of Press Sports. Conrad believes every athlete has a story worth sharing and operates a social app with over 250K active users. Press Sports raised a $2M seed round from investors like General Catalyst in 2021 and is on track to hit important milestones for its Series-A round.

Topics Covered by Conrad Cornell in this Episode:

• The founding story of Press Sports
• What problem is Press Sports solving and why Conrad thinks it's a huge problem
• The big vision for Press Sports as the sports-focused community and the next unicorn sports social app
• Why Press Sports is the next big thing and such an exciting opportunity
• Overview of how the Press Sports app works
• Conrad's plan to grow and scale since raising its seed round funding from General Catalyst
• Conrad summarizing lesson learned so far and big takeaway so far in his entrepreneurial journey as a first time founder
• The biggest hurdle faced by Press Sports right now to growing and scaling the company
• What Conrad wishes he had known before founding Press Sports

Connect with Conrad:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/PressSports_
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/conrad-cornell-453370103/

Check out Press Sports:

Company Website - https://www.info.presssportsapp.com/
Crunchbase - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/press-sports-app

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.

Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we have Kayode Odeleye, Founder and CEO of Caena.io, a UK-based SaaS enabled marketplace that provides founders with an automated financial modeling solution and simplifies the fundraising process for startups. Since its founding last year, the company has built a diverse team of 8 people across 6 cities. Kayode and his co-founder are on a mission to make capital more accessible to companies everywhere.

Topics Covered by Kayode Odeleye in this Episode:

• The origin story of how Kayode founded the company
• What problem is Caena solving and why Kayode thinks there's a huge market demand for it
• The big vision for Caena as the automated financial modeling solution founders need and why it simplifies the fundraising process
• Why Caena is the next big thing and such an exciting opportunity
• The biggest hurdle faced by Kayode right now 
• Overview of how the Caena works and its business model
• The initial GTM strategy and Kayode's plan to grow and scale 
• Kayode summarizing lessons learned and takeaways so far in his entrepreneurial journey as first time founder

Connect with Kayode:

Twitter - Kayode Odeleye (@kayodeodeleye)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayodeodeleye/

Check out Caena.io: https://caena.io/

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.

Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we are talking with Matt Giovanniello, Co-Founder and CEO of Frenalytics, a cloud-based learning software that personalizes the learning process to help brain injured patients and special needs students live more independent lives. Matt recently raised a Pre-Seed round and has ambitious plans to disrupt healthcare and support an expansion to special education.

A graduate from Boston College, Matt created Frenalytics at age 12, when his grandmother suffered from a debilitating stroke. Now, he serves as CEO to bring his passion to life.

Topics Covered by Matt Giovanniello in this Episode:

• The origin story of how Matt started Frenalytics at age 12
• What problem is Frenalytics solving and why Matt thinks there's a huge market demand for it
• The big vision for Frenalytics to make Learning Fun, Engaging and Personalized
• How did the COVID Pandemic impact Frenalytics's trajectory
• The secret sauce and IP technology behind why Frenalytics works for patients and students
• The biggest hurdle faced by Matt right now 
• The initial GTM strategy and Matt's plan to grow and scale now he's raised 
• Matt summarizing lessons learned and takeaways so far in his entrepreneurial journey as first time founder

Connect with Matt:

Twitter - Matt Giovanniello (@matt__gio)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-giovanniello/

Check out Frenalytics app: https://www.frenalytics.com/

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.

Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we have Colin Boey, a former investment banker and now full-time angel investor. Colin syndicated over 9 investments in early stage tech companies globally and deployed more than one million dollars in capital. His investment thesis focuses on enterprise SaaS and productivity tools. We discussed a range of startup investing related topics such as valuation and his process from meeting founders for the first time to actually committing to invest.

Topics Covered by Colin Boey in this Episode:

• Colin's transition from being an investment banker to now a full-time angel investor
• HIs investment thesis and what he likes to see when reviewing a pitch deck
• Discussion on startup valuation and current landscape
• Colin's thoughts on technical vs non-technical founder
• Angel investment risks outside of the U.S.
• Colin's investment process and how he runs his syndicate/investor network
• Colin summarizing lessons learned and takeaways so far in his angel investing journey

Connect with Colin:

Twitter - Colin Boey (@colinboey)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-boey-63001717/

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.

Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we have Monji Batmunkh, Co-Founder and CEO of Matter. Matter is the world’s first hands-free dating app, preaching an audio-first dating experience which reinvigorates the fun in dating and connects people through their voices and live audio conversations. Monji founded the company along with his co-founder and CTO, Battushig, back in 2020 and conducted a structured beta program with 10k+ test users to validate their product idea over the past 16 months.

Having worked previously at Apple & McKinsey, Monji is building a highly differentiated product in the dating space, leveraging audio with advanced machine learning and NLP.

Topics Covered by Monji Batmunkh in this Episode:

• The origin story of why Monji decided to tackle the perceived gap in the current dating space
• What problem is Matter solving and why Monji thinks there's a huge market demand for it
• The big vision for Matter as the audio-first dating app that helps people make meaningful connections through audio conversations.
• Why Matter is the next big thing and such an exciting opportunity
• Overview of how the Matter works and its monetization strategy
• The initial GTM strategy and Monji's plan to grow and scale 
• The biggest hurdle faced by Matter right now 
• Monji summarizing lessons learned and takeaways so far in his entrepreneurial journey as first time founder

Connect with Monji:

Twitter - Monji Batmunkh (@MonjiBatmunkh)
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/monjibatmunkh/

Check out Matter app: https://matter.dating/

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.

Episode Summary:

On today’s episode, we have Trevor Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Genius Sheets talking about his vision for an Intelligent data layer and integration hub connecting the finance stack throughout the organizations and why he is building the easy-to-use data platform for the little guys, empowering small business owners and their accounting firms with intelligent solutions as powerful as Bloomberg Terminal and Capital IQ used by top analysts at big companies.

As a graduate from the Columbia Business School, Trevor is no stranger to financial data having worked as an Associate Director of  Leveraged Finance at Fitch Ratings and managing Financial reporting at 2 startups prior to founding Genius Sheets.

Topics Covered by Trevor Lee in this Episode:

• What problem is Genius Sheets solving and why Trevor thinks it's a huge problem
• The big vision for Genius Sheets as the data layer and integration hub, connecting the finance stack throughout the organizations
• Trevor explaining why he is the right person to address the problem and why the product he's building is much needed by small business
• Why Genius Sheets is the next big thing and such an exciting opportunity
• Overview of how the Genius Sheets platform works
• The initial GTM strategy and Trevor's plan to grow and scale 
• Trevor summarizing lesson learned so far with getting ready for first fundraise
• Big takeaway so far in his entrepreneurial journey as first time founder
• What Trevor wishes he had known before founding Genius Sheets
• The biggest hurdle faced by Genius Sheets right now to growing and scaling the company
• What’s next for Genius Sheets and finding investors who have aligned values
• Fundraise the seed round and what Trevor looks for in investors he wants to partner with 

Connect with Trevor:

Trevor Lee (@TrevorJLee20) / Twitter
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorlee20/
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/SmartHighlights

Check out Genius Sheets: https://www.geniussheets.com/

---

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Solo VC Podcast. 

If you like what you heard, go rate and subscribe to the podcast on our website at https://www.thesolovc.com. If you found something valuable or interesting, definitely share with your friends. We’d love to hear your feedback as well so follow us and reach out on Twitter @chandlerjwang. We do this show every week, so stay tuned for more episodes!

---

About the Host:

Chandler is an active angel investor and venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners investing in Pre-Seed and Seed technology startups. He is a 3x startup operator passionate about working with technical founders to get their big ideas off the ground. Chandler provides mentorship and helps founders build and scale their business, on Day 0.

He holds a master degree in Financial Engineering from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter @chandlerjwang.