Will Little @wclittle Subscribe

Managing Director at Prota Ventures.
I'm a bioengineer-turned-software-developer and venture builder/investor. Learn more about me professionally on LinkedIn, personally here, and check out the podcast I host, Ventures.

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Topic:   Ventures Podcast

Ventures is an audio/video podcast devoted to exploring entrepreneurial stories, market landscapes, problem spaces, and opportunities to create for-profit and nonprofit ventures to benefit human beings.

You can listen and download shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, PocketCast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, PodcastAddict, Deezer, Listen Notes, or directly via the show’s RSS feed here. In addition, you can watch videos of episodes in the posts below or on YouTube here.

Scroll to the bottom for more recent episodes and the reverse chronological order of all episodes.

However, if you missed episodes from Year 1 (i.e. Season 1), we considered how to categorize each show by meta-theme/subject and discovered it was essentially the following ten categories:

  • Blockchains & Web 3.0
  • Leadership & Business Management
  • Entrepreneurship & Fundraising
  • Product Management
  • Life Sciences
  • Marketing & Sales
  • Cybersecurity
  • Design & Branding
  • Education
  • Founder Stories

Here they are (with links below) in reverse chronological order by category (again, scroll further down to see more recent episodes):

Blockchains & Web 3.0

  • Web 3.0 and agricultural supply chains; connecting farmers and startups via scaled trust :: with Joni Kindwall-Moore (Ep52)
  • How are blockchains creating value for humanity? Why is Web 3.0 important? :: with Andrew Cronk (Ep48)
  • Virtual Identities, Dream Thinking, and Human Flourishing in the Web 3.0 era :: with Joel Fariss (Ep24)
  • Taking back the Internet: Blockchains, Privacy, Web 3.0, and Figment.io :: with Andrew Cronk (Ep19)
  • What’s up with Blockchain? Web 3.0, DeFi, and scaling trust :: with Spencer Graham and Tony Little (Ep18)
  • Blockchains, the State of the Crypto Ecosystem, Proof-of-Stake, and Figment Networks :: with Lorien Gabel, Andrew Cronk, and Tony Little (Ep2)

Leadership & Business Management

  • The Amare Wave, love vs. war in business, and uplifting customers :: with Moshe Engelberg  (Ep51)
  • Navigating geopolitics, startup lawyers, and the parallels between the 1920s and 2020s :: with Larry Little (Ep50)
  • Self-discovery, discerning our limits, and transitioning from idealism :: with Kathryn Little (Ep45)
  • Finding purpose, embracing curiosity, and navigating a career path in the 2020s :: with Kim Porter, Eric Sullivan, and Sol Cates (Ep39)
  • Growing as a technology leader, engaging value-add investors, and optimizing go-to-market strategies :: with Bill Murphy and Sol Cates (Ep33)
  • Listening to your community, empowering the marginalized, and knowing when to step back :: with Foxy Davison (Ep27)
  • Coaching founders on leadership, holistic communication, team building, purpose, values, vision, and mission :: with Shandel Sutherland (Ep16)

Entrepreneurship & Fundraising

  • From founder to VC to founder again: practical advice for startups and investors :: with Alex Giannikoulis (Ep47)
  • Ideation to Product-Market Fit, choosing revenue models, and general advice for founders :: with Dave Parker (Ep43)
  • Emerging technology, startup funding, and books for entrepreneurs :: with John Biggs (Ep15)
  • Entrepreneurship, fundraising, and practical advice for startup founders :: with Troy Henikoff (Ep14)
  • Global impact investing, social entrepreneurship, and Global Brigades :: with Steve Atamian and Brian Howe (Ep8)

Product Management

  • Scaling a product management team, lessons learned from startups and enterprises, and how to drive customer success from a product advisory board :: with Kiel Sanders and Patrick Lowndes (Ep46)
  • Technical product management, architecting a growing product team, and deeply understanding your customer’s needs :: with David Pierce (Ep41)
  • The dance of product and growth within a startup, from idea through acquisition into enterprise :: with Jenna Langer (Ep38)
  • Web development for startups vs. enterprises, StimulusReflex vs. React, and New Magic with Ruby on Rails :: with Joe Clarke and David Parrott (Ep22)

Life Sciences

  • Soil science, microbiomes, and loving grains again :: with Joni Kindwall-Moore (Ep49)
  • Brokering trust, bringing transparency into medical supply sales, and distributing COVID-19 rapid antigen & antibody tests :: with Susie Kataoka and Norris Liu (Ep34)
  • HealthTech entrepreneurship, surviving cancer, and starting FertilityAnswers :: with Alice Crisci (Ep29)
  • Cholesterol, lipidology, ketogenic diets, N=1 experiments, and the future of health technology :: with Dave Feldman (Ep11)
  • COVID-19 response and innovation at University of Washington Medicine. Plus, a call-to-action for medical technology entrepreneurs :: with Danica Little, Dimitry Levin, and Dr. Robert Sweet (Ep9)
  • Life Sciences Entrepreneurship & Price Transparency in Healthcare with Dr. Jeffrey Roh, Susie Kataoka, and Dr. Tony Little (Ep1)

Marketing & Sales

  • Connecting people, building community, and learning from super connectors :: with Weston Woodward and Sol Cates (Ep44)
  • Marketing operations, building a MarTech stack, and ensuring data visibility and security in a growing startup :: with Kelly Jo Horton and Sol Cates (Ep37)
  • Complex business-to-business (B2B) sales, the inflection point in a buyer’s journey, and strategies for building a sales team :: with Steve Crepeau and Sol Cates (Ep36)
  • Teaching financial literacy after the NFL, and embracing TikTok for marketing :: with Jed Collins (Ep26)
  • Public Relations (PR) for startup founders: How to effectively communicate with journalists, influencers, and potential customers :: with Alexandra Skillman (Ep17)

Cybersecurity

  • Cybersecurity and user experience philosophies through Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 :: with Jim Reavis and Kurt Seifried (Ep42)
  • History and principles of cybersecurity for startup founders, individuals, and Web 3.0 builders :: with Malcolm Harkins and Sol Cates (Ep40)
  • Cybersecurity, 5G, extraterritoriality, and the dynamic negotiation of trust :: with Tony Rutkowski, Sol Cates, and Tony Sager (Ep32)
  • The history of cybersecurity & the Internet, and lessons for the Web 3.0 generation :: with Tony Sager and Sol Cates (Ep31)
  • Cybersecurity, Rapid Antigen Tests, Learning to Code, the Enneagram, and Meta-Level New Year’s Resolutions :: with Sol Cates (Ep25)

Design & Branding

  • Building a co-founder team with product and design capabilities, and the future of UX in the no-code/low-code era :: with Perry Azevedo (Ep35)
  • Design, innovation, work, and the future of humanity :: with Joel Fariss (Ep21)
  • Startup Branding :: Strategy, Competitive Positioning, Personas, Naming, and Visual Design :: with Elisabeth Hass and Natalie Grummer (Ep5)

Education

  • From social work to social entrepreneurship and starting an inner-city boarding school :: The Ryan Banks Academy story, with Valerie Groth (Ep28)
  • Home Education & Practical Suggestions for Parents this Fall :: with Abby Wahl and Sarah Little (Ep4)

Founder Stories

  • Starting a company in the pandemic, leveraging no-code solutions, and finding co-founders online :: The indifit.co story with Cheryl Kemp (Ep30)
  • The Bird Buddy story, raising over $2m on Kickstarter, and growing an IoT company :: with Franci Zidar and Kyle Buzzard (Ep23)
  • Entrepreneurship and innovation in media, No Excuses Jobs, and the Converge Media story :: with Omari Salisbury (Ep20)
  • Starting a side business, validating a product idea, and managing people :: the Lead Honestly story with Shay Howe and Darby Frey (Ep13)
  • The VendorHawk story: Idea to successful acquisition within a few years, and the importance of founder worldview alignment :: with Patrick Lowndes and Brian Geihsler (Ep12)
  • Period equity, femtech, health education, and Project Untaboo :: with Rachael Kim (Ep10)
  • Finding a technical co-founder, becoming an angel developer, and starting a new golf clubs company :: with Gabe Coyne (Ep7)
  • Co-founding Kickstarter, empowering creatives, and starting a tangible goods company in a pandemic :: with Charles Adler and Wilson Fong (Ep6)
  • Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST), Fighting Human Trafficking, and Starting a Nonprofit :: with Amanda Hightower and Brent Turner (Ep3)

You can, of course, browse my Satchel site and view additional categories and sub-categories.

As part of Season Two, in addition to more interviews, I’m planning to mix in shorter episodes on specific topics, pulling clips from Season One and mixing in my own commentary. If you have any recommended episodes/topics I should cover, please let me know (will@wclittle.com).

Will Little

May 4, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3 DAOs BanyanDAO

Scaling DAOs, dynamic NFTs, and how/why to get involved with BanyanDAO :: with Mike Anderson

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Mike Anderson (https://twitter.com/mikeyanderson) and I discuss the latest updates with BanyanDAO (https://www.BanyanDAO.xyz), scaling DAOs, and NFT strategies for product managers. We also talk about management and operations nuances in DAOs vs. traditional organizations, the Yuga Labs Otherdeeds drop last weekend, the phenomenon of dynamic NFTs that change based on interactions, and the steps you can take (and should take!) to get more involved with BanyanDAO.

Will Little

Apr 26, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3 DAOs NFTs

Evaluating NFT clubs: Incentives, promises, and roadmaps :: with Jesse Bryan (BAYC #1361)

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Jesse Bryan (https://twitter.com/JesseBryan) and I continue our conversation from episode 89 to discuss multiple aspects of NFTs and NFT clubs. We talk about the history of NFTs, the differences between Moonbirds, Crypto Punks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, the important nuances of intellectual property ownership and licensing, airdrops, community, “staking” of NFTs, cybersecurity, and thoroughly evaluating a team and their roadmap before deciding where to spend your time and money.

Will Little

Apr 19, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3 DAOs BanyanDAO

Web3 Product Management, BanyanDAO, and our April 29th Training Day Event for leveling up in Web3 :: with Mike Anderson

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Mike Anderson (https://twitter.com/mikeyanderson) and I talk about all-things BanyanDAO (https://www.BanyanDAO.xyz) and its upcoming April 29th Training Day event to teach Web3 product architecture, design, and management (https://www.banyandao.xyz/web3-product-manager-training-event). In this conversation we cover the history of BanyanDAO, how Mike has been helping to coordinate teams in a decentralized fashion within the organization, the difference between “Pre-season” and “Season 1”, the details of the upcoming event, and what outcomes/topics are most compelling to Mike as someone who is leveling up in Web3.
Will Little

Apr 12, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3 NFTs

Strategies and tactics for marketing NFT projects successfully :: with Arvin Khamseh

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Arvin Khamseh (https://twitter.com/arvinknft) and I discuss the NFT landscape in terms of current best practices for how to build and market to a community of buyers and evangelists. We talk about the wide variety of NFT use-cases, the importance of a compelling team and roadmap in an NFT project, and a number of extremely practical tips for how to market an NFT collection successfully based on Arivin’s impressive track record in the space.
Will Little

Apr 5, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3

Financial literacy and Web3 investing for teens: the TryStack.io story :: with Will Rush

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Will Rush (https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-rush/) and I discuss his new startup, Stack (https://www.trystack.io/). Stack is all about promoting financial literacy and practical Web3/Crypto knowledge for investors under 18 years old. We talk about Stack’s five-point strategy of encouraging teens to consider long-term holding, diversification, periodic saving, engagement, and continual learning about the areas they are investing in. We also talk about NFTs, fixed-income products in DeFi, and general advice for teens looking for side hustles and entrepreneurial success.
Will Little

Mar 29, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3 DAOs BanyanDAO

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): Voting, governance, and lessons from history :: with Dr. Alexandra Sims

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Dr. Alexandra Sims (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-sims-833a8123/) and I talk about various academic and practical operational nuances of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Alex wrote her PhD thesis last year on DAOs (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3971228), and in this episode we talk about the various types of DAOs, jurisdiction issues, voting and governance mechanisms, and advice for new on-chain organizations forming today to learn lessons from previous DAOs and traditional decentralized organizations that existed long before blockchains.
Will Little

Mar 23, 2022
Blockchains Sociology Ventures Podcast Web3 DAOs

Leadership via storytelling in DAOs and traditional organizations :: with Jesse Bryan

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Jesse Bryan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessebryan/) and I discuss the power of storytelling when leading an organization of people. This conversation dives into not only how a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) can reinforce vision and mission with story, but also how traditional corporations can (and should) conduct themselves when interacting with customers. We talk about how a Commodity + Story = Product, how to keep the main thing the main thing, how stories + status are the two pedals of moving an organization forward cohesively, and how/why to tell stories in conversational language as a business.
Will Little

Mar 15, 2022
Ventures Podcast Web3 NFTs

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): The good, bad, ugly, ridiculous, and awesome :: with Jameeleh Shelo

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Jameeleh Shelo (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameelehshelo/) and I discuss NFTs from the perspective of the traditional art community. In short, NFTs are shaking things up and freaking everyone out, even though the market has recently cooled off (relatively speaking). We talk about what NFTs are, why they have been so trendy the last year, how regulators should think about them, and how new markets and metaverses are going to open up many more opportunities for entrepreneurs - and use cases - than we can possibly imagine today.
Will Little

Mar 8, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3

Play-to-Earn, building in Web3, and the Arena.gl story :: with Chase Thompson

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Chase Thompson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasejthompson/) and I talk about the Play-to-Earn space, how to build in Web3 as a product manager and entrepreneur, and his story building https://arena.gl. We dive into topics such as Web3 gaming, token models, DAOs, NFTs, the types of games that can be played on Arena, the next waves in Web3 that are coming for entrepreneurs to take advantage of, and how to practically dive into Web3 to learn more and start building.
Will Little

Mar 1, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3PMDAO Web3 DAOs

Governance, legal, and incentive structures for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) :: with Angela Angelovska-Wilson and Mike Anderson

In this episode of Ventures, my guests Angela Angelovska-Wilson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-angelovska-wilson-38600a1/), Mike Anderson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeandersonjr/), and I discuss three major issues with DAOs: (1) operational governance structures, (2) legal and jurisdiction issues, and (3) various types of incentives for founders and participants in DAOs. For informational purposes only, we talk specifically about our experience launching BanyanDAO (https://www.banyandao.xyz/), how Angela advises DAOs from a legal perspective given her background and extensive professional experience in the space, and how DAOs design incentive models. More than just financial incentives (which are, of course, important), DAOs should clearly communicate with their communities about the unique opportunity of learning/building together as a scaled and decentralized team from the start.

Will Little

Feb 22, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3

The evolution of identity and data sovereignty in Web1, Web2, and Web3 :: with David Harding and Solomon Cates

In this episode of Ventures, my guests David Harding (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveh003/), Solomon Cates (https://www.linkedin.com/in/solcates/), and I discuss all-things identity and data sovereignty leading up to - and within - the present Web3 era. We tee-up a framework to think about identity verification and data warehousing, cryptocurrencies vs. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), Identity Assurance Levels (IALs), Presentation Attack Detection (PAD), and how to think about building Web3 applications with a realistic hybrid of both centralized and decentralized identity verification and control services.
Will Little

Feb 15, 2022
Startups Venture Capital Sociology Ventures Podcast

How to prioritize people, relationships, and communication when venture building and investing :: with Linda Olson and Laura Yunger

In this episode of Ventures, my guests Linda Olson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-olson-cpc-cfa-55885858/), Laura Yunger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurayunger/), and I discuss the often-overlooked value of people and communication alignment when building and investing in businesses. This is an episode I wish I had 20+ years ago when starting out my entrepreneurial career. Based on their extensive experience coaching and investing in entrepreneurs, Laura and Linda also talk frankly about how to avoid burnout and stay maximally healthy with your team.
Will Little

Feb 8, 2022
Blockchains Ventures Podcast Web3PMDAO Web3 DAOs

Introducing BanyanDAO: Training and supporting Web3 product leaders to promote human flourishing :: with Priya Baveja, Jake Varghese, and Mike Anderson

In this episode of Ventures, my guests Priya Baveja (https://www.linkedin.com/in/priya-baveja/), Mike Anderson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeandersonjr/), Jake Varghese (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-varghese-498335/) and I (https://www.linkedin.com/in/wclittle/) talk about Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) structure, governance, incentives, and participation. We are a subset of founders currently launching BanyanDAO (https://banyandao.xyz/), which is growing a community of Web3 entrepreneurial leaders to promote human flourishing. Our first training event - to level up Web2 product managers into Web3 - will be in April 2022 (exact dates TBA). For more details and to participate, join us in our Discord server (https://discord.gg/bYnxySgw34) and follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/BanyanDAO).
Will Little

Feb 1, 2022
Startups Venture Capital Sociology Ventures Podcast

Unlearning racism in venture building & investing :: with Lindsey T. H. Jackson

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Lindsey T. H. Jackson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-t-h-jackson/) and I discuss the journey of anti-racism and anti-oppression work in ourselves, in venture capital, and in startup ecosystems. We discuss the nuances of dismal representation numbers in venture; how to approach Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) conversations in the workplace and beyond; how to develop a regular practice to self-reflect, define your community, and “fail fast” on your own anti-racism journey; and how to encourage others to consider embarking on the journey themselves.
Will Little

Jan 26, 2022
Startups Financial Modeling Ventures Podcast

Startup Finance & Accounting 101: A crash course for founders :: with Veronica Sagastume

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Veronica Sagastume (https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicalsagastume/) and I talk about all-things startup finance and accounting. From the perspective of what founders need to know, this episode ended up being a crash course in the various high-level aspects of bookkeeping, accounting, controller work, fractional CFO work, tax prep, legal considerations, and finance operating suggestions. Veronica’s firm (https://www.fortifiedaccounting.com/) works with funded, early stage startups and she makes a compelling pitch for why you should seriously consider hiring a firm rather than individuals in the early stages of your funded business.