Join us in our digital den and immerse yourself in the inspiration born from exploring the hidden narratives and inevitable plot twists that shape every compelling startup journey.
The Bearhug Experience Podcast
(#14) Rohit Gupta: Auditoria, Transforming Corporate Finance Using AI, Entrepreneurship, Early Stages, M&A, Adaptability, Resilience, Curiosity & Getting Comfortable Getting Out Comfort Zones.
Rohit Gupta is the Co-Founder & CEO of Auditoria.AI – the leading cognitive automation provider for ERP and Corporate Finance teams, backed by top investors such as Venrock, NeoTribe Ventures, Engineering Capital, KPMG and Workday Ventures. His vision is to transform how work gets done in the back office with zero-touch, self-driving, autonomous solutions that leverage AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and cloud computing. Rohit is a serial entrepreneur, active angel investor, and software executive with over 25+ years of experience in building, scaling, and successfully acquiring and selling multiple companies. He is also a Forbes Finance Council Member, a Robotic Process Automation Certified Professional, and a well-known speaker and thought leader in the industry.
(#13) David Connors: The Swarm, Go-To-Network is the new Go-To-Market, Carving Signal from the Noise, Growth, Evolution, Power of Warm Introductions & Relationship-Driven Sales in the Age of AI.
David Connors is the Co-Founder & CEO of The Swarm. The Swarm is the first “Go-To-Network” platform giving companies and investors the keys to their networks and the relationship data they need to accelerate sales, recruiting, and fundraising. David is a 3x startup founder, including an exit to Sequoia Capital who acquired his outbound recruiting automation startup Automately. After the acquisition, David joined the Sequoia team as their Director of Recruiting Operations, where he went on to build custom tools for Sequoia's recruiters, investors, and founders. After a 2 year earn-out period, David went on to Co-Found The Swarm, with backing by the founders of Superhuman, Thumbtack, Lookout, Bearhug Recruiting, and many more successful operators, in addition to prominent VCs like 500 Global, Contrary Capital, and Sequoia Capital.
(#9) Jake Braly: Krisp.ai, Digital Voice Productivity, Identifying & Scaling Revenue Growth, Perseverance, Solution Orientation, Being a “Sorting Hat” & Unbounded Growth.
Jake Braly, the Chief Revenue Officer of Krisp.Ai – the world’s first AI-powered Call & Meeting Assistant software that enhances voice communication through audio cleansing, noise cancellation, accent localization, call transcription, and summarization. Krisp processes over 75 billion minutes of voice conversations each month helping thousands of businesses deliver better business outcomes. Jake has a proven track record of driving new venture creation, market development, and revenue growth for technology businesses. Prior to Krisp, Jake served as the Head of Global Marketing and Strategic Alliances for Highspot, playing a vital role in guiding the company's valuation of $50 million to over $3.6 billion, in addition to notable roles at companies such as Apptio, K2 Software, Microsoft, and IBM.
(#8) Spencer Dusebout: Aidium, PropTech, Radical Self-Awareness & Objectivity in Business, Strong Convictions, Running Into Brick Walls & The Relentless Pursuit of Solving Hard Problems.
Spencer Dusebout, a serial entrepreneur, and the Founder, and CEO of Aidium, a software platform that helps mortgage professionals automate their lead conversion, transaction management, and client retention workflows and has become one of the fastest growing software companies in the prop-tech sector. Prior to starting Aidum, Spencer co founded Hands4Others a youth based non-profit aspiring to solve the world's water crisis – an idea that started on the back of a napkin, and became an international movement that provided safe water to people in 17 countries around the world. As a technologist at heart, Spencer has spent the last decade building and selling software companies spanning predictive data, machine learning, and enterprise software. He’s also a sought after speaker having graced the stage of the TED conference twice.
(#7) Aashish Dhamdhere: Relevvo, The Scientific Revolution In B2B Sales & Marketing, Engagement Readiness & Tripling Pipeline Through Empathy, Deep Analysis & Intentional Energy.
Aashish Dhamdhere is the Co-founder and CEO of Relevvo, an AI-powered B2B Sales & Marketing platform that helps B2B companies identify and target the 5-10% of accounts in a company's addressable market that are engagement-ready at a given point of time. Before founding Relevvo, Aashish served in various product and program management roles at Microsoft on the Visio and Azure teams, and then as a marketing leader at several high-growth B2B software startups including Skilljar, Amperity, LiquidPlanner, and most notably Apptio, where he built the global demand generation function helping the company scale from $20m to hundreds of millions of dollars leading up to their IPO.
(#3) Nick Ezzo: Moving Corporate Finance Forward with Advanced Automation, Category Creation, Early-Stage GTM Strategy & The Power of Unconstrained Creativity.
Nick Ezzo is the VP of Strategic Accounts and Market Development at Auditoria.ai. While Nick boasts an illustrious career as a sales and marketing trailblazer, his true passion lies in being a data-driven demand generation marketer who’s committed to enhancing the efficiency of finance and accounting professionals through the power of Artificial Intelligence and Automation. Beyond pioneering a patented marketing technique, Nick excels in nurturing startups during their foundational and growth phases, and is an expert in building world-class go-to-market (GTM) teams.
(#2) Jennifer Gill Roberts: Grit Ventures, Deep Tech Investing, Insatiable Curiosity, Labs to Launch, Physical Infrastructure & The Power of Diverse Teams.
Jennifer Gill Roberts is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Grit Ventures. Jennifer, a technologist, repeat entrepreneur, and dedicated advocate for diversity, is also an early-stage venture capitalist. She specializes in sourcing and investing in groundbreaking sustainable technology innovations from the nation's top labs. These innovations tackle real-world challenges, from rebuilding our physical infrastructure to accelerating manufacturing and incorporating AI-powered robotic applications across industries like construction, agriculture, and logistics.