Matt Walsh has a pretty unique perspective on the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. If you know Matt it's likely as "the Fidelity guy" on some crypto panel in Boston or New York, or from today's news that the crypto-focused venture firm he left Fidelity to found?-?Castle Island Ventures?-?is now writing checks and open for business.Before foundi…

How does a kid from Brooklyn became one of Boston's top startup CEOs? We invested on Hometap because it's a market opportunity on the scale of a whole new capital class, and because my friend Jeffrey Glass is one of the most backable CEO's in Boston.For this week's episode Jeff and I sat down to talk about why, and how he got to that place from the…

My conversation with Sue Graham Johnston, the President of G20 portfolio star 128 Technology. Sue actually came to Boston in 2017 to help run 128, a next generation networking company that closes the gap between what your business needs and what your network does. Much of 128's management team also led Acme Packet, a Boston-based unicorn acquired b…

My guest this week is Kirk Arnold, a veteran tech industry CEO, public board member, and lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Kirk was most recently the CEO of Data Intensity, a 650-person global managed services provider of cloud-based data, application and analytics acquired by EQT Partners in 2017. Before that she held roles as the CO…

You could say Patrick Murck is the man who made Bitcoin respectable.The cryptocurrency’s journey from preferred medium of exchange for mail-order cocaine to Next Big Thing was a long, strange trip indeed, and my guest this week was right there the whole way. Meet Patrick Murck, Bitcoin insider and Special Counsel at the international law firm Coole…

My guest this week is Dave Balter, Founder and Partner of Flipside Crypto, a data solutions and investment club for cryptocurrencies. Dave really is a pillar of the Boston startup community… an innovation?obsessed builder of companies, often as a Founder/CEO but also as a Board Member, advisor, or investor.As an operator Dave’s probably best known …

Meet Carbonite President & CEO Mohamad Ali to hear his remarkable immigrant story, and learn the approach to business value creation that's not only transformed Carbonite into an exciting Boston company again, but enabled his string of successes from IBM, to Avaya, to HP.How Hard Can It Be is sponsored by G20 Ventures, early traction capital for Ea…

Peach co-founder & CEO Janet Kraus grew up in a household with two people living as “their best selves,” realizing their potential and doing what they loved. She’s spent the better part of her time since leaving home trying to figure out what that means for her, through a remarkable set of experiences as a student, entrepreneur, and professor at th…

Meet Nanigans Co-founder & CEO Ric Calvillo, hear lessons learned from the ups and the downs of the startup journey, and data-driven insight about what most Facebook advertisers are getting wrong.Bởi Mike Troiano

My guest the week is healthcare VC superstar Michelle Dipp. Dr. Dipp is a co-founder and Partner of Longwood Fund, having co-founded Longwood portfolio companies Axial Biotherapeutics and OvaScience, both of which she now serves as Chairman of the Board. She previously served as the CEO of Alnara Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly), Verastem (N…

My guest the week is venture capitalist and charter G20 Member Jeff McCarthy. Jeff’s a Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners, focused mainly on materials. He played leadership roles at two early, successful companies within the North Bridge portfolio, Cadia Networks and New Oak Communications, where he was the CEO until that company was acquired…

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of "How Hard Can It Be"...Up close and personal with the real people behind the hits and misses in Boston's venture capital ?big time.My name is Bob Hower and I'm the Co-founder of G20 Ventures. You can? ???follow me on Twitter at @bobthevc, and? link to our Medium publication at G20vc.com.?Each week we'l…

My guest this week is ezCater Co-Founder and CEO Stefania Mallett. Stefania has spent over 25 years building and growing technology-enabled companies that solve real business problems. She co-founded and successfully sold InSite Marketing Technology to what is now KANA on NASDAQ, and prior to that led National Logistics Management (a broker for $22…

My guest this week is Patrick Sweeney, an Olympic athlete turned technology entrepreneur turned full time adventurer. Patrick chases adventure for a living, propelled by a passion to help others do the same through corporate speaking engagements and network television appearances, plus an upcoming book in 2017. Patrick grew up a working class Irish…

After 20 episodes of the HHCIB Pod, it's time to ask... well... how hard it actually is?How are we doing? What could we do better? We've set up a quick typeform here to gather up your feedback, would love to hear from YOU what we're doing right and how we could do it better.So let us know: https://miketrap.typeform.com/to/YEeSzu…

My guest this week is Matt Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of Mautic, the leader in open source marketing automation. Mautic makes it easy for you to put the right message in front of the right person at the right time, empowering enterprises and agencies with a flexible, open platform built for us by us. Before joining Mautic earlier this year M…

My guest this week is Pierre-Loic Assayag, the CEO and co-founder of Traackr, the world’s most powerful and effective influencer management platform. Traackr lets marketers scale their influencer marketing programs by focusing on the individual people with the greatest impact on their objectives. Their customers include Coca-Cola, HP, OpenTable, Ca…

My guest this week is Eric Paley, Managing Partner of Founder Collective, an early stage fund begun by a team of entrepreneurs who themselves launched companies and led them through successful exits. Founder Collective is focused on helping the next generation of great entrepreneurs build important and lasting businesses through it’s refreshingly c…

My guest this week is Yumin Choi, Managing Director of Bain Capital Ventures Healthcare team. Yumin joined Bain's Boston team last year after ten years culminating as a General Partner at HLM Venture Partners. At HLM he led a variety of investments across healthcare IT and services sectors, serving as board director for AbleTo, mPulse Mobile, Ocean…

This week's guest is Drift Co-Founder and CEO David Cancel. If you’ve ever landed on a web page and had a real person offer to help you find what you were looking for, there’s a decent chance Drift helped make it happen. Their mission is to “help businesses grow by delivering a better, personal experience across every conversation with their custom…

My guest this week is Kevin Bitterman, a Partner in Polaris Partners Boston office. Kevin joined Polaris in 2004 to focus on investments in healthcare, after playing a key role in getting Sirtris Pharmaceuticals off the ground while a graduate student at Harvard Medical School. What was that role? Well, it depends who you ask. When Kevin was asked …

My guest this week is Brent Grinna, the Founder & CEO of EverTrue. EverTrue is a social donor management software platform that helps hundreds of higher education, independent school, and other non-profit fundraising organizations track and engage alumni and donors. EverTrue participated in TechStars and was selected as a winner of MassChallenge in…

This week my guest is Jules Pieri, Co-Founder and CEO of the product launch platform The Grommet. The company’s Citizen Commerce™ movement is reshaping how consumer products get discovered, shared, and bought. Jules started her career as an industrial designer for technology companies and was subsequently a senior executive for large brands, such a…

This week my guest is Steve Kokinos, founder and CEO of Fuze, a unified communications platform that improves business productivity by integrating voice, video, and always-on collaboration into a global, cloud-based service and all-in-one app people actually want to use.Under Steve’s leadership, Fuze has become one of the hottest and most highly re…

This week my guest is fellow G20 member Craig Spitzer. Craig’s the CEO of a2c Boston, New York and Philadelphia, an IT consulting and staffing company he co-founded in 2007 with the mission of assisting clients who need new talent and technology to achieve their business objectives.Craig founded his first company?—?Alliance Consulting Group?—?in 19…

This week my guest is G20 member Dino Di Palma, who most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of Benu Networks, a provider enterprise technology that allows network operators to dynamically and exponentially scale existing networks for better service agility and increased stickiness in the home and business. Prior to that he was the Chief…

This week's episode features my conversation with Sarah A. Downey, a Principal at Accomplice focused on venture investing in virtual and augmented reality and frontier tech. Before getting into venture she served as Director of Marketing at Ovuline, a women’s reproductive health startup making fertility and pregnancy mobile apps, and as Manager of …

This week we’re going to do something short and sweet, a Holiday Quickee coming in a little over 30 minutes.I think you'll really enjoy my conversation with G20 member Jim Herrnstein, one of the most brilliant yet humble people I’ve encountered in my travels. To say Jim’s not your typical entrepreneur would be a dramatic understatement... First off…

This week my guest is my longtime friend and co-conspirator Jim Crowley, who most recently served as CEO of Skyhook Wireless. Before that was the CEO and President of BuyWithMe, and before that of Turbine, a massive multi-player gaming company that was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2010. Jim and I worked closely together at m-Qube before that, where …

This week my guest is Bill Wiberg, co-founder, General Partner, and spiritual guide of G20 Ventures. Bill is an accomplished executive and 14-year venture investor passionate about technical innovation, and helping entrepreneurs win. He has extensive operating experience, culminating in his role as the President of Lucent Technology’s $5 billion Ce…

This week my guest is Steve Kraus, the general Partner who leads healthcare investing activities as Bessemer Venture Partners a storied century-old VC firm headquartered right here in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. Steve has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the top healthcare investors in the industry, having led or actively participated i…

This week my guest is Patrick MeLampy, co-founder of 128 Technology and that company’s Chief Operating Officer. With longtime partner Andy Ory, Patrick co-founded Acme Packet Inc. and served as its Chief Technology Officer, eventually taking the company public and selling to Oracle in a transaction valued at over $1.7 Billion. Patrick holds a BS de…

This week my guest is Ram Sudireddy, pretty universally regarded as one of Boston's best engineers and entrepreneurs in the world of microprocessors. Starting as a UMass computer and electrical engineer, Ram realized his dream early to work at the legendary Bell Labs where he was the chief architect and lead designer for a number of highly complex …

This week's episode features my conversation with the great Jit Saxeena, founder and CEO of Applix and Netezza, Boston startups he led through successful IPO's before being acquired by Cognos and IBM, respectively. The secret of his remarkable success? The desire to zag when others zig, and the conviction to follow through.This week's second segmen…

Our inaugural episode features my conversation with Bob Hower, Founding Partner of Boston-based G20 Ventures. Bob is a 13-year VC vet twice named to the Forbes "Midas List," having led investments in great ideas and great teams including Acme Packet (APKT, acquired by Oracle), AppIQ (acquired by HP), Channel Advisor (ECOM), Actifio, [x+1] (acquired…