Venture Studio (23): Neil Capel, CEO of Sailthru

I sat down recently with Neil Capel, CEO of SailThru, a company that was born out of a need for a higher standard of email delivery. We met at his offices @ AOL Ventures.

In our conversation Neil describes how he went from consultant at Morgan Stanley just a few years ago to founding a company that will soon be expanding globally. He takes us through his experience of first bootstrapping his company and building a team, to raising a seed round last year, to their $8 million Series A round.

He also gives specific advice to folks like himself who have the entrepreneurial drive- but who are working in large company environments.

Enjoy.

00:06 – What is Sailthru and how does it work?

01:14 – How Neil started out

01:36 – The story of Sailthru's scrappy beginnings, bootstrapping, credit cards, moonlighting, etc.

03:03 – Their first round: all NYC investors: AOL Ventures, RRE, Metaphorphic, Thrive, Lehrer Ventures, DFJ Gotham

03:21 – The big secret in building a team!

03:54 – Something about their customers

04:03 - What's next for Sailthru

04:45 - Neil's awesome advice for entrepreneurs that are just starting out! (Going full force!)

For the full interview click on the image of Neil just below:

Venture Studio (21): Stacy Spikes, CEO of MoviePass

Are you one of those people that actually loves going to the movies? Do you like to go with the family, a date, or solo? Whatever it is- has Stacy Spikes has got a deal for you! In this conversation learn what Stacy, CEO of MoviePass is up to. He's trying to change the way the whole movie-going experience works. Others are obviously big believers- he's backed to the tune of $1.5MM in seed money from the likes of AOL Ventures and True Ventures. You also have to listen to the story of what he's gone through as an entrepreneur to make MoviePass a reality. It's real-life stuff we entrepreneurs benefit from hearing about. Stacy came up in the business at Miramax and then deepened his experience in the space by founding urbanworld and growing it into the largest minority film festival in the world.

For the full interview click on the image of Stacy below:

Venture Studio (20): Ari Jacoby, CEO of Solve Media

If you're curious about what kind of entrepreneur it takes to get funded by the likes of Chris Dixon, Roger Ehrenberg, Aydin Senkut, Brian O'Kelly, First Round Capital and AOL Ventures- have a listen.

I recently sat down with 3x entrepreneur Ari Jacoby, CEO and co-founder of Solve Media. Ari's a super-smart guy who somehow found time between various startups to work at Reed-Elsevier and Google. In our talk you'll hear just how he's positioned Solve to replace traditional CAPTCHAS in a very clever manner that actually generates revenue for publishers and improves user experience. Enjoy.

There are two videos following. The one just below is a description of Solve's product:

For the full interview click on the image of Ari below:

Venture Studio (18): Mike Brown, Jr., Partner & Founder AOL Ventures

Recently I sat down with the terrific Mike Brown, Jr., one of the Founders and a Partner at AOL Ventures, the VC arm of AOL which focuses on Seed and Series A non-strategic investing in tech-oriented consumer internet companies.

Mike comes to AOL Ventures from the Virgin Group's investment arm and talked with us about the history, vision and approach of the AOL fund- which you'll learn is definitely not your typical corporate venture arm. He recently moved the operation to the venerable Brooks Brothers building on Broadway and Bond in NOHO and absolutely did wonders with the space- check the video below for footage. In 1874 the New York Times effused as follows concerning the place: “Externally it is an ornament to the street, and its internal arrangements are of the most perfect kind.” I can state unequivocally that this description still fits the bill and that all AOL Ventures portfolio companies headquartered or being incubated there are enjoying one of the best workspaces I've encountered in NYC.

Learn about how AOL Ventures' approaches investing in the very early-stage sector of a startup's lifecycle in our conversation below:

You'll find the whole interview here at: Venture Studio