Shows
The Pocus Unlocking Revenue PodcastMeka Asonye: Where sales tech is headed in 2025Where is sales heading in 2025?
Find out in our deep dive with First Round Partner Meka Asonye. We covered what's actually working in today's shifting landscape and what's coming next.
From his experience scaling a 100+ person revenue team at Mixpanel to funding seed-stage startups at First Round, Meka brings a refreshingly practical perspective to separating game-changing AI innovations from the shiny distractions.
In this episode we covered:
Meka’s framework for separating tools from toys when evaluating sales tech companies
The three make-or-break priorities sales teams should focus on heading into 2025
What will change - and wh...
2024-12-1026 min
In DepthHow to find customers in the Dept of Defense: From prototype to the Pentagon | Steve Blank (Hacking for Defense)Steve Blank is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University, where he co-created the "Hacking for Defense" curriculum for the Department of Defense. As a consultant to top defense and intelligence organizations, Steve brings cutting-edge strategies to the national security sector. Before entering academia, Steve built eight different startups. He helped launch the Lean Startup movement with his May 2013 Harvard Business Review cover story. Steve also authored the acclaimed business books "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" and "The Startup Owner's Manual.”This episode’s is guest host is Meka Asonye, a Partner at First Round Capital. Before join...
2024-11-1434 min
First Funders05: Discovering hidden baseball talent to leading Sales at Stripe all applied to finding outliers in tech - Meka Asonye, First Round CapitalMeka Asonye, a Partner at First Round Capital, started angel investing in 2018 while working at Stripe and joined First Round in 2021. He has made dozens of Angel investments and 13 Venture investments, and he's just getting started! While he focuses on B2B SAAS, he has not shied away from investing in audacious founders, from modernizing 911 call centers to putting the biggest satellites in space. Meka shares his approach to finding true outliers, a practice he began while uncovering hidden talent for the Cleveland Guardians. Meka writes checks of $2M to $5M as the lead a...
2024-04-021h 08
The GTMnow PodcastGTM 58: How Stripe SuperCharged their SMB Team with Meka AsonyeMeka Asonye is a Partner at First Round Capital based in San Francisco. Before moving into venture, Meka was an active angel investor backing companies such as Coda, Alchemy, Rimeto (acq. by Slack), Snackpass and Stytch.Previously, he served as the VP of Sales & Services at Mixpanel, where he ran the more than 100-person global revenue team. Before Mixpanel, Meka spent four years at Stripe and scaled and matured its sales organization during the company's rapid growth from 250 to 2000 people. Prior to joining Stripe, Meka served as Case Team Leader at Bain in San Francisco, partnering with...
2023-08-2945 min
The DealMeka Asonye—First Round CapitalFirst Round Capital was founded in 2004 in Philadelphia. To date they have done more than 1,000 early stage investments into companies like Flexport, Roblox, Warby Parker, Square and Uber. Meka Asonye joined First Round two years ago after a career leading sales at two of the fastest growing companies in the world, Stripe and Mixpanel. To learn more about Antler and how you can start your next company with us please come see us at antler.co
2022-10-0452 min
In DepthNever done sales before? Meka Asonye shares GTM playbooks from Stripe, Mixpanel, and backing founders at First RoundToday’s episode is with Meka Asonye, a Partner at First Round Capital. This week marks the one year anniversary since he joined, making the transition from seasoned GTM leader to full-time early-stage investor.Prior to First Round, Meka served as the VP of Sales & Services at Mixpanel, where he ran the more than 100-person global revenue team and owned the customer lifecycle from first website visit to renewal. Meka also spent four years at Stripe as it scaled from 250 to 2000 people and matured its sales org. When he first joined in 2016, he served as...
2022-03-031h 05
Village Global PodcastLessons From Stripe, Mixpanel, and First Round with Meka AsonyeMeka Asonye (@BigMekaStyle), partner at First Round Capital, joined Ben Casnocha at a Village Global event to discuss: - Meka’s time with the Cleveland Indians and what it taught him about finding hidden talent.- Why customer obsession is so important to Meka when looking at a potential investment and concrete examples of what that looks like in practice.- Lessons on customer obsession from Stripe and Mixpanel. He says that the Collisons had lunch with users every Friday and evangelized “teaching with every touch,” meaning leaving every user with more knowledge about the pr...
2021-11-0245 min
Wharton FinTech PodcastMeka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital - Taking a Founder First Approach to InvestingAnirudh Singh sits down with Meka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital. In this episode they discuss:
- Meka’s early career, including spending time with the Cleveland Indians
- Heading Stripe’s Startup/SMB business
- How Meka became an angel investor and later decided to join First Round Capital
- Being fluent in Pig Latin
And much more!
Meka Asonye is a Partner at First Round Capital based in San Francisco. Before moving into venture, Meka was an active angel investor backing companies such as Coda, Common Room, Rimeto (acq. by Slack), Snackpass and Stytch.
Previously, he served as t...
2021-10-1125 min
More Equity30. More Equity: Meka Asonye of First Round CapitalWelcome to More Equity. Today, we’re bringing you a new episode from our Harlem Capital Angel Investor Series — uncovering the tips and tricks to angel investing from your favorite founders, operators, and venture capitalists.
Today we’ll be talking to Meka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital, a seed stage venture capital firm, and former executive at Stripe and MixPanel. In this episode, Meka walks through his journey — from breaking into tech through non-traditional backgrounds to discovering his first angel investment. Meka offers listeners guidance on how to learn angel investing, add value to founders, and think th...
2021-07-1832 min
GritVP Sales at Mixpanel, Meka Asonye: Exploring Analytics, High Velocity Sales, and StigmasTopics:Is there a stigma around intelligence in sales?How to enable high velocity salesMany organizations today are struggling to strike a balance between being data-driven and gut-driven. For pointers, we turned to Meka Asonye who has deployed data at the highest level in sports doing statistical analysis for the Cleveland Indians. Meka provides tips about using data to discover opportunities and gain a market advantage. Meka also talks about his transition into sales, touching on important issues related to the stigma of the profession (and how that’s changing) and enabling high velocity growth.
2020-08-1053 min