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
(#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.
(#10) Phil Dur: PeakSpan Capital, GTM Mechanization, Capital Efficiency, Responsible Value Creation, Pragmatic Optimism, Optionality, Alignment & The Power of Infectious Charisma.
Phil Dur is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of PeakSpan Capital, a growth equity firm with over $1.5B in AUM (Assets Under Management) based in New York City and San Mateo, CA. In addition to being a graduate of Princeton University and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Phil has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and has been a software investor for 25 years, serving on the board of over forty growth stage companies. Prior to PeakSpan, Phil worked at Investor Growth Capital and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners on the technology and software investment teams. He’s also a graduate of two culinary arts schools, an avid tennis player, runner, husband, father, dog lover, and an infectiously charismatic leader.
(#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.