Sand Hill Road

Latest Episodes:

E53 Going from no app to a super app with Henry Shi, co-founder of super.com Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Henry Shi, co-founder of super.com an all-in-one savings super app for everyday Americans. Having recently raised a $85m Series C led by Inovia Capital, the company is trusted by over 5 million customers worldwide and has helped them save over $150M to date. Super.com is backed by Tier 1 investors including NBA superstar Steph Curry and has raised over $150M USD and surpassed $1B in sales. 00:00 Intro 01:37 From Chatbot to Super App 03:02 V1 of the product 04:55 Product Today 06:39 Going from appless app to super app 09:34 Going from travel-only to Walmart 12:47 Going from Seed to Series C 14:56 Fundraising in 2016 16:15 Surviving the pandemic 17:45 The Las Vegas offsite 19:34 Perfecting Distribution 21:29 Founder transition 25:04 Vision for Super.com

E52 Pricing strategies for generative AI with Orb co-founder and CTO Kshitij Grover Aug 16, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Kshitij Grover, co-Founder and CTO of Orb (www.withorb.com), a billing platform provider that solves usage-based billing needs. The SF based startup has to date raised a total of c. $19.1 million across its Series A ($14 million led by Menlo) and seed ($5.1 million led by Greylock).

E51 Raising $1bn to bringing entrepreneurship to Japan with World Innovation Lab founder and CEO Gen Isayama Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Gen Isayama, co-founder and CEO of World Innovation Lab, a Palo Alto and Tokyo based venture firm investing in growth-stage companies and serving as a bridge between startups and Japanese corporations. 00:00 Intro 01:30 World Innovation Lab 04:10 From Japanese lawyer to Silicon Valley VC 09:10 From DCM to WIL 13:55 WIL investment thesis 19:40 Japanese entrepreneurial culture 26:57 Open innovation Models at WIL 31:57 Raising Fund I 37:00 Full spectrum of WIL Activities 42:16 Investment strategy and portfolio construction 48:06 Outlook for WIL III 51:23 Call to action

E50 Establishing a growth equity firm with Left Lane Capital founding partner Dan Ahrens Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Dan Ahrens, founding partner at Left Lane Capital, a New York based venture capital and early growth equity firm that invests in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses.

00:00 Intro

02:43 Consumer vs. enterprise tech

05:09 Getting into venture

07:54 Raising Left Lane I

10:35 Investing while fundraising

13:09 The Left Lane Capital playbook

17:09 Due diligence in a hot market

18:52 Scaling Left Lane Capital

21:36 Deployment pace

23:28 Focus area

26:04 Hard conversations

28:10 Arc

32:53 Exo Freight

35:28 Supply Chain Tech

37:04 Call to action

E49 Cooking up the future of digital food halls with Byte Kitchen founder Divyang Arora Feb 22, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Divyang Arora, founder and CEO of Byte Kitchen about cooking up the future of digital food halls with Byte Kitchen founder Divyang Arora.

0:00 Intro

1:24 2 minute elevator pitch

4:27 Going all in

8:07 Business Model

14:52 The Byte Kitchen playbook

18:52 Optimal Partner Restaurant Profile

25:39 End customer benefits

27:25 Raising the Seed Round

30:14 Early traction

31:54 Byte Kitchen's Use of Tech

34:50 Call to Action

E48 Protecting passwords through open-source software with Bitwarden CEO Michael Crandell Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Michael Crandell, CEO Bitwarden about scaling open-source password manager Bitwarden.

00:00 Intro

00:50 What is Bitwarden

03:22 From side hustle to venture-backed

06:36 Joining a Bootstrapper at Series A

09:58 Open-source GTM

13:25 Open-source defensibility

15:35 Community vs. enterprise edition

17:37 Revenue traction

19:51 Competition

22:25 Fundraising journey

25:46 Use of funds

28:25 Go-to-market strategy

31:40 Building a remote-first company

35:11 Arbitrating talent

36:00 Next steps for Bitwarden

38:28 Not the first time at the rodeo

E47 Your fund size is your strategy with Kyle Harrison, GP at Contrary Jan 13, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Kyle Harrison, general partner at Country about everything from the economics of whale hunting, the venture product offering to his recent joining of Contrary.

00:00 Intro

01:11 Way into venture

04:58 Time of reflection

07:24 The under-innovated venture model

10:46 Your fund size is your strategy

16:16 The nature of the general partnership

20:38 Rethinking the org chart

25:13 VC product vs. VC service

28:31 VC product industry practice

31:13 From monolithic brands to solo capitalist

37:18 The future of venture tribes

39:52 Joining Contrary

E46 Uncovering tax credits (aka free money) for startups with MainStreet founder and CEO Doug Ludlow Nov 20, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Doug Ludlow, co-founder and CEO of MainStreet, which helps startups and small businesses uncover tax credits.

00:00 Intro

01:05 Hipster

05:09 Happy Home Company

07:10 Starting MainStreet

11:22 The nature of Tax credits

16:03 The Path Act

17:52 The MainStreet Product

19:14 Customer success stories

20:41 Customer profile

22:40 Audit protection / guarantee

24:13 Moats

25:37 Whitespace vs. Switching

26:30 MainStreet traction

27:47 Fundraising

28:17 Pre-empted Series A

30:22 MainStreet layoffs

32:42 Unit economics

33:42 Unit economics

34:50 Vision for MainStreet

37:42 Fast five

39:01 Call to action

E45 Building a nextgen, authentic professional social network with Candor founder Kelsey Bishop Nov 07, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Kelsey Bishop founder and CEO of Candor, which is a nexgen, authentic social network.

00:00 Intro

01:02 What is Candor

03:25 Single player mode

03:56 Kelsey’s background

06:19 Employee-culture fit

08:31 Getting started

10:31 Migrating from bubble

11:38 Raising the Seed

12:42 Getting pre-empted

13:50 Raising from angels

15:23 Solo founder journey

16:58 Product + traction

21:47 Business model

23:03 Talking to users

24:51 Remote first company

26:25 Becoming a CEO

27:03 Call to action

E44 Shipping an open-source, low code enterprise tool builder with Appsmith founder Abhishek Nayak Oct 29, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Abhishek Nayak the co-founder and CEO of Appsmith, which is an open-source, low code internal tool builder. 00:00 Intro

03:15 Entrepreneur in Residence at Accel

05:52 Third time at the Rodeo

09:55 Validating a startup idea at his wedding

11:38 Built for Internal facing apps

13:48 The Appsmith Customer Persona

15:06 From Dataset to app

15:42 What Appsmith is replacing

17:07 The Appsmith killer feature

18:29 Getting to the first 100 users

21:40 Customer love + product iteration

23:07 Competition

25:24 Open source vs. closed source