Shows
Guardians of the DataSecuring AI and Reclaiming Control of Access - Kraig Faulkner - Guardians of the Data - Episode #12Are we so obsessed with new AI tools that we’ve forgotten the basics of security?Kraig Faulkner, Field CTO at Infolock, joins the show to discuss the pressing challenges and solutions around data security, particularly focusing on AI and access control. Kraig elaborates on the importance of understanding business data, securing AI access, and the necessary steps organizations need to take to prevent data exfiltration. He shares his professional journey and thoughts on the future trends in data security, including a potential shift back to on-prem solutions and the integration of AI into larger security portfolios. Th...
2025-10-1650 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #37) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/23/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($290.5 million raised across 10 featured companies):
1. Slip Robotics, led by Chris Smith, has raised $28 million in a Series B funding round. Slip Robotics provides automated truck-loading robots-as-a-service, enabling users to auto-load and unload any truck in just five minutes with SlipBot robots.
2. Mantis Robotics, led by Gerry Vannuffelen, has raised $5 million in Venture funding. Mantis Robotics provides a hardware and software platform for robotic automation, enabling safe and productive human-robot collaboration.
3. BILT, led by Nate Henderson, has rais...
2025-01-0613 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #36) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/16/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($264 million raised across 10 featured companies):
1. Terradot, led by James Kanoff, has raised $58.2 million funding, including $4.2 million in Seed funding and a $54 million Series A funding round. Terradot is a climate company that transforms rock weathering into a scalable global carbon removal solution.
2. WeaveGrid, led by Apoorv Bhargava, has raised $28 million in Venture funding. WeaveGrid provides a software platform that enables rapid electric vehicle (EV) adoption while ensuring grid stability.
3. Electrified Thermal, led by Daniel Stack, has rais...
2024-12-2417 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #35) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/9/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($478.42 million raised across 11 featured companies):
1. AMP, led by Matanya Horowitz, has raised $91 million in a Series D funding round. AMP provides AI-powered sortation systems for the waste and recycling industry, using deep learning to identify recyclables and contaminants in real-time.
2. Heirloom, led by Shashank Samala, has raised $150 million in a Series B funding round. Heirloom develops Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology that uses enhanced limestone to capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere.
3. Tractian, led by Igor Mari...
2024-12-1415 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #34) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 12/2/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($135.2 million raised across 7 featured companies):
1. Teleo, led by Vinay Shet, has raised $16.2 million in a Series A funding round. Teleo develops autonomous technology for heavy equipment, turning traditional machinery such as dump trucks, wheel loaders, and excavators into supervised autonomous machines.
2. Wherobots, led by Mo Sarwat, has raised $21.5 million in a Series A funding round. Wherobots provides a spatial intelligence cloud platform that offers planetary-scale geospatial ETL, analytics, and computer vision solutions using a modern data lakehouse architecture.
2024-12-0216 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #33) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/25/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap ($545.5 million raised across 18 featured companies):
1. OceanWell, led by Robert Bergstrom, has raised an $11 million Series A funding round. OceanWell develops modular deep-sea water farms designed for reverse osmosis desalination, harnessing natural hydrostatic pressure at depths of 400 meters.
2. Four Growers, led by Brandon Contino, has raised a $9 million Series A funding round. Four Growers develops AI-powered harvesting robots, including the GR-100 system, which uses 8 stereo cameras and proprietary AI to achieve 98% accuracy.
3. Distru, led by Blaine Hatab, has raised a $6 million Series A funding round. Distru prov...
2024-11-2618 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #32) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/18/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. General Galactic, led by Halen Mattison, has raised an $8 million Seed funding round. General Galactic develops fossil-free fuel generation technology, transforming industrial CO2 waste streams into carbon-neutral natural gas.
2. Outbuild, led by Franco Giaquinto, has raised an $11 million Series A funding round. Outbuild provides scheduling and planning software for the construction industry, streamlining workflows with an integrated platform.
3. Vaulted Deep, led by Julia Reichelstein, has raised a $32.3 million Series A funding round. Vaulted Deep specializes in biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS), geologically sequestering organic wast...
2024-11-1915 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #31) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/11/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Advex, led by Pedro Pachuca, has raised a $3.5 million Seed funding round. Advex provides AI Vision solutions for industrial manufacturing, specializing in self-healing AI Vision models that leverage diffusion-based synthetic data.
2. Transaera, led by Sorin Grama, has raised a $10.5 million Seed funding round. Transaera provides an energy-efficient platform for cooling and dehumidification, utilizing solid desiccants to absorb moisture and repurpose waste heat for humidity removal.
3. Physical Intelligence, led by Karol Hausman, has raised a $400 million Venture funding round at a $2 billion valuation. Physical Intelligence develops AI-d...
2024-11-1210 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #30) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 11/4/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. LuxWall, led by Scott Thomsen, has raised a $51 million Series B funding round. LuxWall is a leader in glass-based transparent insulation solutions, focused on reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions from buildings.
2. Third Wave, led by Arshan Poursohi, has raised a $27 million Series C funding round. Third Wave Automation provides autonomous forklifts powered by its Shared Autonomy platform, enabling forklifts to operate in fully autonomous, remote assist, remote operation, or traditional manual modes.
3. Matter, led by Vishnu Sridhar, has raised a $12 million Seed funding round. Matt...
2024-11-0519 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #29) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 10/28/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Pantheon AI, led by David Mace, has raised a $25 million Series A funding round. Pantheon provides artificial intelligence-enabled architectural services that streamline processes for developers, owners, and tenants.
2. BiltOn, led by Omer Slavin, has raised a $15 million Series B funding round. BiltOn provides construction operations and risk management software tailored for owners and general contractors.
3. Carbon Ridge, led by Chase Dwyer, has raised a $9.5 million Series A funding round. Carbon Ridge develops modular onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS) solutions for the maritime shipping industry to r...
2024-10-2911 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #28) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 10/21/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Beacon AI, led by Matt Cox, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Beacon AI is an aviation software technology company specializing in advanced AI systems that augment commercial and defense pilots.
2. Solubag, led by Cristian Olivares, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding. Solubag provides a water-soluble alternative to single-use plastic.
3. Perry Weather, led by Colin Perry, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. Perry Weather provides a technology platform that enhances weather safety and operations for schools, sports, municipalities, construction, and other industries affe...
2024-10-2916 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #27) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 10/14/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Lithios, led by Mo Alkhadra, has raised a $12 million Seed funding round. Lithios develops electrochemical lithium extraction technology designed to efficiently extract lithium from untapped brine deposits.
2. Airloom, led by Neal Rickner, has raised a $13.75 million Seed funding round. Airloom Energy is a renewable energy company specializing in wind power.
3. Corvus Robotics, led by Jackie Wu, has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Corvus Robotics provides autonomous inventory management systems using drones.
4. Unify, led by Austin Hughes, has raised $19 million in Series A and...
2024-10-2913 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #26) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 10/7/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Neeve, led by Nitesh Trikha, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round. Neeve offers a cloud platform for managing smart buildings and spaces, deployed in over 650 buildings globally.
2. 3Laws Robotics, led by Andrew Singletary, has raised a $4.1 million Seed funding round. 3Laws Robotics provides dynamic safety solutions for autonomous systems like drones and mobile robots.
3. Ensemble, led by Alex Reneau, has raised a $3.3 million Seed funding round. Ensemble offers a machine learning platform that improves model accuracy and performance on sparse data.
4. Wisp...
2024-10-2416 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #25) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 9/30/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. David Energy, led by James McGinniss, has raised a $23 million Series A funding round. David Energy is a retail energy provider focused on decarbonizing the energy sector through real-time energy management, aiming to reduce the environmental impact across multiple states in the U.S.
2. Eion, led by Anastasia Pavlovic, has raised a $3 million Series A extension funding round. Eion specializes in carbon removal using enhanced rock weathering to absorb CO2 and improve soil health, aiming to remove 10 million tons of CO2 annually by 2030.
3. GenLogs, led by R...
2024-10-2408 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #24) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 9/23/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Slingshot Aerospace, led by Tim Solms, has raised a $30 million Growth Capital funding round. Slingshot Aerospace develops AI-powered solutions for satellite tracking and space traffic coordination, enhancing operational safety. The funds will scale operations and support growth initiatives.
2. GreenLite, led by James Gallagher, has raised a $28.5 million Series A funding round. GreenLite provides construction software that automates the permitting process, speeding up approvals. The funds will enhance the platform and expand market reach.
3. PinPoint, led by Jim Carr, has raised a $3.2 million Seed funding round. PinP...
2024-10-2413 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #23) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 9/16/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. StackGen, led by Sachin Aggarwal, has raised a $12.3 million Seed funding round. StackGen generates infrastructure from code, automating development processes for platform engineers and DevOps teams. The funds will accelerate product development and go-to-market efforts.
2. Reshape Automation, led by Juan Aparicio, has raised a $5 million Seed funding round. Reshape Automation's AI-powered platform consolidates process data to accelerate automation in manufacturing and supply chains. The funds will support product suite expansion and deployment.
3. Track3D, led by Chaitanya Naredla, has raised a $3.4 million Seed funding round. Trac...
2024-10-2415 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #22) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 9/9/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Oxylus Energy, led by Perry Bakas, has raised a $4.5 million Seed funding round. Oxylus Energy converts CO2 into green methanol through low-temperature processes, targeting sectors like shipping and aviation. The funds will support development and pilot deployment.
2. Blitzy, led by Brian Elliott, has raised a $4.4 million Seed funding round. Blitzy automates software development using AI, delivering enterprise-grade products for insurance and financial services. The funds will expand the team and platform.
3. Champion, led by Jeff Reekers, has raised a $3.3 million Seed funding round. Champion's AI-powered plat...
2024-10-2409 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #21) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 9/2/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Butlr, led by Honghao Deng, has raised $38 million in Series B funding. Butlr offers an AI-driven platform to monitor movements and occupancy in spaces, optimizing real estate, health, and energy efficiency without capturing personal data.
2. Planera, led by Nitin Bhandari, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding. Planera provides a CPM-based scheduling platform for the construction industry, offering real-time progress tracking, risk simulation, and collaboration tools for all project phases.
3. Miris, led by Marlin Prager, has raised $26 million in Seed funding. Miris brings spatial computing to r...
2024-10-2412 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #20) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 8/26/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Trunk Tools, led by Sarah Buchner, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round. Trunk Tools offers an AI platform that automates construction workflows, using AI agents to manage tasks and prevent delays or budget overruns.
2. Allstacks, led by Hersh Tapadia, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. Allstacks provides a predictive forecasting platform for software development, using AI to identify at-risk projects and ensure timely delivery.
3. Power to Hydrogen, led by Dr. Paul Matter, has raised $18 million in funding. Power to Hydrogen develops advanced elec...
2024-10-2408 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #19) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 8/19/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. UptimeAI, led by Jagadish Gattu, has raised a $14 million Series A funding round. UptimeAI provides AI-based plant monitoring software to help industrial firms optimize asset performance and detect anomalies in sectors like oil, gas, and utilities.
2. ITpipes, led by Ned Bebawy, has raised a $20 million funding round. ITpipes offers AI-driven pipeline inspection technology to help municipalities manage waste and stormwater systems, streamlining data collection and analysis.
3. Guidewheel, led by Lauren Dunford, has raised a $31 million Series B funding round. Guidewheel’s AI-powered platform connects factory machin...
2024-10-2413 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #18) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 8/12/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Contextual AI, led by Douwe Kiela, has raised an $80 million Series A funding round. Contextual AI offers a platform that enables enterprises to build custom language models for enhancing AI applications, with secure deployment options.
2. Energy Domain, led by Ben Heinzelmann, has raised a $5 million Series A funding round. Energy Domain operates an online marketplace for the energy sector, providing tools for market data analysis to optimize asset value and manage deals.
3. Datch, led by Mark Fosdike, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round. Datc...
2024-10-2413 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #17) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 8/5/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Leaf, led by G. Bailey Stockdale, has raised a $11.3 million Series A funding round. Leaf provides a unified farm data API and platform to streamline farm data processing for agriculture and food companies.
2. Applied Carbon, led by Jason Aramburu, has raised a $21.5 million Series A funding round. Applied Carbon designs automated biochar production machines to convert agricultural waste into biochar, enhancing soil health and providing carbon removal.
3. Matereal, led by Jacqueline Ros Amable, has raised a $4.5 million Seed funding round. Matereal develops a sustainable alternative to t...
2024-10-2421 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #16) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 7/29/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Cowboy Clean Fuels, led by Ryan Waddington, has raised approximately $13 million in Series B funding. Cowboy Clean Fuels utilizes depleted coal bed methane wells to generate carbon-negative renewable natural gas using agricultural byproducts.
2. Star Catcher, led by Andrew Rush, has raised a $12.25 million Seed funding round. Star Catcher aims to build a space-based energy grid, eliminating power constraints for satellites by developing space-based energy beaming services.
3. Mytra, led by Chris Walti, has raised a $78 million Series B funding round. Mytra builds software-defined robotics for warehouses, auto...
2024-10-2409 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #15) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 7/22/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Jacobi Robotics, led by Max Cao, has raised a $5 million Seed funding round. Jacobi Robotics is commercializing AI-powered motion planning technology to improve robot programming and performance.
2. Alvys, led by Nick Darman, has raised a $20.5 million Series A funding round. Alvys provides a cloud-based logistics platform that enhances supply chain management efficiency.
3. Halo Industries, led by Andrei Iancu, has raised an $80 million Series B funding round. Halo Industries develops laser manufacturing technology for the semiconductor industry, offering lower-cost, higher-quality alternatives to mechanical processes.
4. Coas...
2024-10-2409 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #14) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 7/15/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Niva, led by Abhinav Rai, has raised a $3.3 million Seed funding round. Niva provides a global business identity platform that helps businesses build trust, reduce onboarding times, and simplify compliance with AI-driven fraud detection.
2. nodaFi, led by Jacob Pandl, has raised a $3.5 million Seed funding round. nodaFi offers a cloud-based facility operations platform that integrates preventive maintenance, work order management, and asset tracking to optimize operations across industries.
3. Gymdesk, led by Eran Galperin, has raised a $32 million Private Equity funding round. Gymdesk provides management software for...
2024-10-2410 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #13) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 7/8/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Uncaged Innovations, led by Stephanie Downs, has raised a $5.6 million Seed funding round. Uncaged Innovations creates sustainable, animal-free leather from grains using its BioFuze technology, emitting less greenhouse gas and conserving water and energy.
2. Phaidra, led by Jim Gao, has raised a $12 million funding round. Phaidra provides an AI-powered plant operator that helps facilities improve energy efficiency and sustainability using real-time, reinforcement learning-based controls.
3. Pieces, led by Tsavo Knott, has raised a $13.5 million Series A funding round. Pieces offers a developer productivity tool that helps deve...
2024-10-2414 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #12) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 7/1/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Kinetic, led by Nikhil Naikal, raised $21 million in Series B funding. Kinetic provides digital maintenance for modern vehicles, including EVs, using AI and robotics through its network of service centers.
2. M2X Energy, led by Josh Browne, raised $40 million in Series B funding. M2X Energy develops systems to convert methane into low-carbon methanol, addressing methane emissions with sustainable solutions.
3. Aether Fuels, led by Conor Madigan, has raised a $34 million Series A funding round. Aether Fuels uses the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert waste carbon into sust...
2024-10-2407 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #11) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 6/24/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Hona, led by Manny Griffiths, has raised a $9.5 million Series A funding round. Hona specializes in client engagement software for law firms, automating updates, data collection, and communication processes.
2. Hark, led by Fran Brzyski, has raised a $3.5 million seed funding round. Hark offers a Voice of Customer (VoC) platform that integrates video/audio feedback, AI-driven analysis, and customer support.
3. GrayMatter Robotics, led by Ariyan Kabir, has raised a $45 million Series B funding round. GrayMatter Robotics delivers robotic solutions for tasks like sanding, polishing, and grinding.
2024-10-2413 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #10) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 6/17/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Viaduct, led by David Hallac, has raised a $10 million Series B funding round. Viaduct provides AI-driven solutions for connected vehicles to predict, identify, and solve product failures.
2. Anterior, led by Abdel Mahmoud, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round. Anterior's AI platform helps healthcare professionals manage administrative tasks via its clinical co-pilot, Florence, which provides a guided approach to clinical reasoning, applied first to prior authorization.
3. Jump, led by Parker Ence, has raised a $4.6 million Seed funding round. Jump offers AI software for financial advi...
2024-10-2406 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #9) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 6/10/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Caju AI, led by Otavio Freire, has raised a $3 million Seed funding round. Caju AI provides a platform, renowned for its Generative AI capabilities, that captures and analyzes customer communications across all messaging channels as well as customer engagement data to deliver advanced analytics for conversation intelligence, call summaries, regional activity monitoring, key trend analysis, and actionable business intelligence, all designed to accelerate field engagement and enhance customer satisfaction across the enterprise.
2. WindBorne, led by John Dean, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round. WindBorne designs, manu...
2024-10-2319 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #8) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 6/3/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. TraceAir, led by Dmitry Korolev and Maria Khokhlova, has raised a $25 million Series B funding round. TraceAir is a provider of construction site analysis and management solutions for land development and homebuilding.
2. Sagetap, led by Sahil Khanna, has raised a $6.8 million Seed funding round. Sagetap provides a B2B SaaS buying network that uses AI to match tech executives working on AI infrastructure, cybersecurity, DevOps, cloud and data infrastructure, with the optimal software vendors.
3. Rain AI, led by William Passo, has raised a $8.1 million Series A Ex...
2024-10-2315 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #7) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 5/27/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Subeca, led by Patrick Keaney, has raised a $6 million Series A funding round. Subeca has built a smart water meter register that retrofits onto a majority of existing water meters in under one minute, essentially making dumb meters smart.
2. Ketos, led by Meena Sankaran, has raised a $10 million Equity Growth funding round. Ketos provides real-time water analytics and intelligence to enable smarter and sustainable farms, cities, and industries.
3. XGS Energy, led by Josh Prueher, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round. XGS Energy provides a pr...
2024-10-2317 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #6) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 5/20/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Pepper, led by Bowie Cheung, has raised a $30 million Series B funding round. Pepper is an eCommerce platform for food services, convenience stores, and other marketplaces, which features a suite of AI powered tools for the distributor sales rep and customers to grow their market share.
2. Ndustrial, led by Jason Massey, has raised a $18.5 million Series B funding round. Ndustrial's AI-powered platform brings together hard-to-access production and energy data from nearly any industrial system to give customers a real-time understanding of energy intensity.
3. Orange Charger, led...
2024-10-2310 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #5) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 5/13/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. ChangeEngine, led by Andrew Higashi, has raised a $10 million Series A funding round. ChangeEngine syncs with employee data, creates persona segments for targeted communication, aligns visual content with brand identity, and offers a suite of AI creator tools alongside a curated template library for launching workplace initiatives effectively.
2. Daloopa, led by Thomas Li, has raised a $18 million Series B funding round. Daloopa has developed AI-driven technology to source, organize and distribute historical dataset globally.
3. Zanskar, led by Carl Hoiland, has raised a $30 million Series B fund...
2024-10-2310 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #4) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 5/6/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Backflip, led by Josh Ernst, has raised a $15 million Series A funding round. Backflip is a real estate financial technology company that supports entrepreneurs to acquire and renovate single family homes, thereby reinvigorating the housing supply and their local communities.
2. Mimic, led by Derek Smith, has raised a $27 million Seed funding round. Mimic's SaaS platform provides enterprises with detection, deflection, and rapid recovery from ransomware attacks, preventing infrastructure damage or data theft.
3. Arbol, led by Sid Jha, has raised a $60 million Series B funding round. Arbo...
2024-10-2313 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #3) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 4/29/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Exowatt, led by Hannan Parvizian, has raised a $20 million Seed funding round. Exowatt provides a modular energy platform designed to power energy-intensive data centers.
2. Nominal, led by Cameron McCord, has raised both a $7.5M Seed + a $20M Series A funding round. Nominal provides a comprehensive data analysis platform and modern workflows specifically tailored to the needs of engineering teams that develop, validate, and monitor hardware to allow for rapid and accurate review of test data and the validation of critical systems.
3. Campus, led by Tade Oyer...
2024-10-2311 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #2) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 4/22/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Ecotrak, led by Matt Singer, has raised a $30 million Venture round. Ecotrak is an Enterprise Asset Management software platform that simplifies facilities management through modern web and mobile applications for multi-site owners and operators of restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, and countless other businesses.
2. Kode Labs, led by Edi Demaj, has raised a $30 million Series B funding round. Kode Labs is making a bid to become the Salesforce of commercial building automation.
3. Quilt, led by Paul Lambert, has raised a $33 million Series A funding round. Quil...
2024-10-2312 min
The Bearhug Experience(Funding Recap #1) Bearhug Recruiting's Early & Growth Stage Tech Startup Funding Recap! 4/15/24Here’s this week’s startup funding recap:
1. Archetype AI, led by Ivan Poupyrev, has raised $13m in Seed funding. Archetype AI has emerged from stealth with the launch of Newton™, the first foundation AI model that can understand the physical world.
2. Cyera, led by Yotam Segev, has secured a $300 million Series C funding round at a valuation of $1.4 billion. As a pioneer in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), Cyera instantly provides companies visibility over all of their sensitive data, context over the risk it represents & their security exposure, and automated remediation to reduce the attack...
2024-10-2118 min
The Bearhug Experience(#14) Rohit Gupta: Auditoria, Transforming Corporate Finance Using AI, Entrepreneurship, Early Stage Ventures, M&A, Adaptability, Resilience, Curiosity & Getting Comfortable Getting Out Comfort ZonesKraig Ward speaks with Rohit Gupta. 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.
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.
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 pro...
2024-04-251h 49
The Bearhug Experience(#13) David Connors: The Swarm, Go-To-Network is the new Go-To-Market, Carving out Signal from the Noise, Growth, Evolution, Power of Warm Introductions & Relationship-Driven Sales in the Age of AI.Kraig Ward speaks with David Connors, Co-Founder & CEO of The Swarm. 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...
2024-04-032h 03
The Bearhug Experience(#12) Maria Khokhlova: TraceAir, Construction Acceleration, Laser Physics to Moving Dirt on Construction Sites, Resilience, Flexibility, Merging Cultures, Joy Projects & The Power of Deep Empathy.Kraig Ward speaks with Maria Khokhlova, the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at TraceAir, a sitework intelligence platform for Land Developers and Homebuilders.
TraceAir is the #1 provider of construction site analysis and management solutions for sitework. TraceAir’s cutting-edge technology helps builders save time and money by improving efficiency, and introduces radical transparency into the process while reducing the risk of errors or delays.
Before devoting her work to TraceAir, Maria did a Ph.D. in laser physics, while also running a custom development software studio. She’s now on a mission that goes far beyond...
2024-03-132h 37
The Bearhug Experience(#11) Aaron Rubens: Kudoboard, Celebrating Moments That Matter At Work, Building Products that Deliver Joy, Gratitude & Appreciation At Scale, Staying Capital Efficient & Riding Viral Waves.Kraig Ward speaks with Aaron Rubens, the Co-Founder & CEO of Kudoboard, an online workplace appreciation software that’s helping tens of millions of people every day at top companies globally, work harder, and stick around longer, thanks to feeling more appreciated at work.
Aaron graduated from Tulane University, after becoming a high school math teacher through Teach for America. After teaching, he led the creation of Khan Academy’s White House-sponsored 4-year college admissions technology resource, for low-income, high potential students. From there, he got his MBA from Harvard Business School, and went on to build Kudoboard, grow...
2024-03-071h 51
The Bearhug Experience(#10) Phil Dur: PeakSpan Capital, GTM Mechanization, Capital Efficiency, Responsible Value Creation, Pragmatic Optimism, Optionality, Alignment, and The Power of Infectious Charisma.Kraig Ward speaks with Phil Dur, 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...
2024-02-291h 42
The Bearhug Experience(#9) Jake Braly: Krisp.Ai, Digital Voice Productivity, Identifying & Scaling Revenue Growth, Perseverance, Solution Orientation, Being A “Sorting Hat”, And Unbounded Growth.Kraig Ward speaks with 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 $...
2024-02-132h 26
The Bearhug Experience(#8) Spencer Dusebout: Aidium, PropTech, Radical Self-Awareness & Objectivity In Business, Strong Convictions, Running Into Brick Walls, And The Relentless Pursuit Of Solving Hard Problems.Kraig Ward speaks with 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 tech...
2024-02-062h 17
The Bearhug Experience(#7) Aashish Dhamdhere: Relevvo, The Scientific Revolution In B2B Sales & Marketing, Engagement Readiness & Tripling Pipeline Through Empathy, Deep Analysis & Intentional Energy.Kraig Ward speaks with Aashish Dhamdhere, 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 $20...
2024-01-241h 58
The Bearhug Experience(#6) Samantha Burns: 3D Imaging In Land Development & Residential Construction, Challenging The Status Quo, Battling Imposter Syndrome, Scrappiness, And The Superpower Of Translation.Kraig Ward speaks with Samantha Burns, a distinguished marketing leader with over 15 years of experience in the construction industry, and the Head of Marketing at TraceAir. TraceAir is a leading Construction Technology platform that specializes in providing rapid and precise 3D data to home builders and land developers, aiming to revolutionize residential construction workflows and processes. Samantha’s current focus is on driving growth, educating the market, and enhancing engagement for TraceAir's core audience. In addition to shaping the narrative of construction marketing and empowering others to thrive in this ever-evolving landscape, she is dedicated to establishing the company as...
2024-01-172h 05
The Bearhug Experience(#5) Steve Dell’Orto: ConCntric, Transforming Pre-Construction Workflows, Seamlessly Integrating People, Data, And Processes, Leadership Superpowers, & The Accelerating Impact Of Domain Expertise.Kraig Ward speaks with Steve Dell'Orto, the founder and CEO of ConCntric. As a seasoned Construction Executive with 28 years of industry expertise, frustrated by the disjointed and inefficient preconstruction planning process, Steve embarked on a mission to revolutionize the construction landscape. He envisioned and developed a groundbreaking software platform that seamlessly integrates people, data, and processes, offering a unified, collaborative environment and single source of truth for managing diverse projects. This innovative solution empowers modern builders to accelerate project timelines, enhance predictability, and proactively mitigate risks. By facilitating early-stage interventions and informed decision-making, Steve's platform aids in averting costly...
2024-01-101h 56
The Bearhug Experience(#4) Nev Hyman: NoMor, Solving Our Plastic Waste Problem, Building A Surfboard Empire, Setting 4 Guinness Book Of World Records, Keeping Your Radar On, And The Power Of Silver Linings.Kraig Ward speaks with Nev Hyman. A serial entrepreneur who’s a legendary pioneer in the world of surfboard manufacturing, and went on to build a global surfboard empire under the NEV Futureshapes brand. He set 4 Guinness World Records, and more recently won Pitch@Palace, becoming the worldwide Entrepreneur of the Year, thanks to his recent endeavor where he’s helping to solve the world’s plastic waste problem at its source, by converting waste into safe, affordable eco-friendly building materials to be used for constructing homes, schools, medical clinics and more in both developed and developing nations around the wo...
2024-01-053h 44
The Bearhug Experience(#3) Nick Ezzo: Moving Corporate Finance Forward With Advanced Automation, Category Creation, Early-Stage GTM Strategy, And The Power Of Unconstrained Creativity.Kraig Ward speaks with Nick Ezzo, 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.
Connect with Nick Ezzo on LinkedIn
If you enjoyed th...
2023-12-241h 53
The Bearhug Experience(#2) Jennifer Gill Roberts: Grit Ventures, Deep Tech Investing, Insatiable Curiosity, Labs To Launch, Physical Infrastructure, And The Power Of Diverse Teams.Kraig Ward speaks with Jennifer Gill Roberts, 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.
Connect with Jennifer Gill Roberts on LinkedIn here.
If you enjoyed the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review here on Spotify...
2023-12-202h 22
The Bearhug Experience(#1) Jay Potter: ECOR Global, Environmental Technology, Circular Economy, Sustainable Building Products, Passionate Optimism, And Breeching Into The Unknown.Kraig Ward speaks with Jay Potter, the CEO of ECOR Global. Jay is a brilliant entrepreneur who (so far) has personally raised more than 150 million dollars, taken 11 companies public (3 of his own creation), and has been a trailblazer in the environmental technology movement for decades. He and the teams he’s been central to are responsible for introducing numerous groundbreaking inventions to the world, such as developing the first high-volume electrolysis for hydrogen and non-toxic disinfectants, the world's first solar parking array, the first industrial pellet plant in the US, and today he serves as the CEO of ECOR Global, a...
2023-12-152h 04
The Bearhug ExperienceTrailer: Welcome to The Bearhug Experience, where we cozy up to the fire in our digital den!Welcome to The Bearhug Experience, where we cozy up to the fire in our digital den and immerse ourselves in the inspiration born from exploring the hidden narratives and inevitable plot twists that shape every compelling startup journey.
Join us as we showcase inspirational guests, from bold investors with the Midas touch to pioneering entrepreneurs at the helm of today's most thrilling startups. We'll also hear from courageous go-to-market leaders navigating the frontier of emerging tech and the unsung heroes bringing all the people and parts together to form unstoppable dream teams!
2023-10-2100 min
Mac Geek GabTo RAID or Not (to RAID)? – Mac Geek Gab 805Do you close your Terminal sessions correctly? Does iStat Menus work after you migrate? Are you getting Notes to launch as fast as possible? You'll be able to answer "yes" to all three of these things after just the first few minutes of this week's show. Stick around and learn about taming CarPlay, sharing Calendars, using a VPN with your Apple TV and much more. You'll definitely hit your quota of learning at least five new things with John and Dave this week.Note: Shownotes are complete!
Chapters/Timestamps/Stuff mentioned:
00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 805 for Monday...
2020-03-0900 minMac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and TroubleshootingTo RAID or Not (to RAID)? – Mac Geek Gab 805Do you close your Terminal sessions correctly? Does iStat Menus work after you migrate? Are you getting Notes to launch as fast as possible? You'll be able to answer "yes" to all three of these things after just the first few minutes of this week's show. Stick around and learn about taming CarPlay, sharing Calendars, using a VPN with your Apple TV and much more. You'll definitely hit your quota of learning at least five new things with John and Dave this week.Note: Shownotes are complete!
Chapters/Timestamps/Stuff mentioned:
00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 805 for Monday...
2020-03-0900 min
The Steven Spencer Show!Episode 12 - Attack of the ClonesDean changes his colors after the latest State of the Union address; the crew discuss Dune and Brian Herbert's latest addition; we talk with Pete about his latest CD and play some Go Down Matthew tracks; Kraig reviews Cirque De Soleil; and rambling talk about Hotel Dusk, Superman Returns, and the Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion games.
Music from Go Down Matthew, Wet Cat, and M. Ward
2007-01-291h 13