Extra Crunch Live: Join Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg for a live Q&A May 26 at 2pm ET/11am PT

Hans Vestberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, is a busy man. He’s also a business man. He’s a busy businessman, but has graciously made time to join us for an episode of Extra Crunch Live, our ongoing speaker series for Extra Crunch members.

We’re thrilled to have Vestberg as a guest on the show! The episode will air on May 26 at 2pm ET/11am PT.

Full disclosure: Verizon is the parent company to TechCrunch, which means that Vestberg is our boss’s boss’s boss’s boss.

Vestberg was previously CEO at Ericsson and joined Verizon as chief technology officer and EVP of network and technology in April of 2017. In June of 2018, the company announced that Vestberg would succeed Lowell McAdams as CEO of Verizon Communications. The promotion was made official that August.

Vestberg is unlike some of our previous guests on Extra Crunch Live — VCs like Kirsten Green, Roelof Botha and Charles Hudson and entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban. Vestberg is an operator at the helm of one of the world’s biggest corporations, and, as such, provides a unique perspective on adaptation strategies during the coronavirus pandemic.

Not only can attendees plan to hear about how Verizon is thinking both short and long-term about the effects of this pandemic on business, but also about how things are changing internally at the company, from re-opening offices to keeping morale high.

Vestberg leads a company with thousands of employees and can help founders understand how to manage a company at scale, particularly during a time when decisions are being made quickly and the stakes are high.

We’re also interested in talking to Vestberg about the company’s 5G rollout. 5G technology has huge implications for startups, especially as video conferencing and high-bandwidth communication formats become more popular in the midst of physical distancing.

Oh, another important thing! We’re not going to be the only ones asking questions. Extra Crunch members can also ask their questions directly in the Zoom call. So make sure you come prepared! If you’re not already a member, you can join Extra Crunch here.

Again, this episode of Extra Crunch Live with Hans Vestberg goes down on May 26 at 2pm ET/11am PT. You can find the full details below the jump.

Extra Crunch Live: Join Alexia and Niko Bonatsos for a Q&A today at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT

The Extra Crunch Live series continues today with two venture capitalists: Alexia and Niko Bonatsos.

The two investors don’t work for the same firm, but they each have an interesting perspective on the world of investing. Alexia is a former journalist — and a former co-editor of TechCrunch — who now runs Dream Machine, her own venture capital fund. In contrast, Niko has worked for General Catalyst for nearly ten years.

So Alexia will bring the small-fund perspective, and Niko will let us know more about what larger, older firms are thinking.

As I wrote last week, however, my goals for this talk aren’t merely another run-through of VC check sizes and other investing fundamentals. Sure, we’ll go over those questions to kick things off, but I’m more curious to learn what the pair are excited about when it comes to the future.

It’s been a depressing year so far, and, at least in theory, startups are supposed to accelerate the future. Bring it on, I say. Bring on that new, good shit.

Alexia’s fund claims that it helps “make science fiction nonfiction.” We’re going to press on that.

The chat comes in the shadow of one of the pair’s peers advocating for “building” lots of new stuff. Big things! Flying factories! But after a16z dropped its manifesto that “IT’S TIME TO BUILD,” the massive venture capital firm wound up stuffing another digital VC status-signaling playground with a bunch of money so that venture capitalists could hang out with rappers and partially ameliorate their youth-derived insecurities.

Building, indeed.

What are Alexia and Niko hoping to see built? Sure, they’re capital sources, but their selection process — the companies they choose to support — could impact what we use in the future.

I’m hoping to leave this particular chat a bit up on the coming few years, which should upgrade how down we all feel about the present.

Details are below for Extra Crunch subscribers; if you need a pass, you can get an inexpensive trial here.

See you all in a few hours.

Details

Here’s the information you’ll need:

  • May 19, 11:00 a.m. PDT/2:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. GMT

Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green demystifies the COVID-19 consumer

“In general, the consumer has proven to be more resilient than I would have thought,” said Kirsten Green, founder of Forerunner Ventures, which has investments in breakout D2C stars like Glossier, Hims and Bonobos.

She joined us for an Extra Crunch Live conversation to help us better understand buying habits in the COVID-19 era. With tens of millions out of work and uncertainty all around, people are spending less, but Green showed up with a healthy dose of optimism — while acknowledging that her worst-case scenario planning was wrong.

Her top-line advice for companies

Take a cautious approach, be prepared to make hard decisions, but be thoughtful about that. Don’t just make a knee jerk-reaction, which is “this is the apocalypse, we all need 36 months of runway, fire half your staff and go to the bunker.” I think the biggest opportunity for companies right now in many ways is to create value by demonstrating their flexibility.

Extra Crunch Live: Join Alexia and Niko Bonatsos for a Q&A May 19th at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT

The Extra Crunch Live series rolls along next week with something special: My old boss is taking part.

Let me explain. Alexia Bonatsos was once co-editor of TechCrunch and was part of my interview circuit when I first joined the publication. She taught me more than I can write down; Alexia is one of my favorite people.

She’s joining us for an Extra Crunch Live session as she’s now a venture capitalist at Dream Machine VC, a firm she started. Her partner, Niko Bonatsos, is taking part as well. Niko works for General Catalyst, where he’s a managing director.

Dream Machine is a self-described “opportunistic seed fund,” meaning it makes early bets. General Catalyst tends to invest a little later but also has a seed effort that’s worth a few dozen million dollars each year. So, the two are likely focused on different parts of the market, even if there is some overlap.

I won’t lie; I’m excited about this conversation. Alexia is someone who always challenges my thinking, and Niko is a curious VC in that I don’t think he’s ever tried to bullshit me. (Indeed, he swung by the other week to chat with my Equity co-host Danny, which went pretty well. But call that a warm-up for this particular chat.)

What will we talk about? We’ll cover the basics quickly — their current investing pace, changes in the face of COVID-19, that sort of thing — but then we’ll dig into the future. General Catalyst has taken part in a few AI-focused funding rounds in 2020, and Dream Machine says that it “hopes to help exceptional founders make science fiction non-fiction.”

I have some questions.

But I won’t be able to draw all the lines that we ask them to color in for us — you’ll be on hand to help. These Extra Crunch Live chats have been a good reminder that you have a lot of ideas and questions that are worth raising. So, I’ll see you on May 19 in the early afternoon on the East Coast, or the late morning if you’re out West.

Details are below for Extra Crunch subscribers; if you need a pass, you can get an inexpensive trial here.

Let’s have some fun and talk about the future.

— Alex

Details

Here’s the information you’ll need:

  • May 19, 11:00 a.m. PDT/2:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. GMT

Extra Crunch Live: Join Kirsten Green today for a live chat at 11 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST/6 p.m. GMT

When the world is in an unprecedented state, it’s fair — and appropriate — to challenge the status quo.

Today at 11 a.m. PST, Jordan Crook and Natasha Mascarenhas are hosting a Extra Crunch Live chat with Kirsten Green, founder of Forerunner Ventures. This is our latest chat in our series of discussions with investors like Mark CubanAileen Lee and Ted WangCharles Hudson and Mitch and Freada Kapor.

Green has invested in a number of high-profile D2C companies like Glossier and Birchbox and had several large exits, like Dollar Shave Club selling to Unilever for $1 billion in 2016. We’ll talk about what attracted her to those companies in the first place and how that process may have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Beyond that, we’ll cover advice she’s giving to portfolio startups, what is keeping her up at night, and of course, what is keeping her hopeful.

During the call, audience members are encouraged to ask questions. We’ll get to as many as we can, but you can only participate if you’re an Extra Crunch member, so please subscribe here.

Extra Crunch subscribers can find the Zoom Link below and are encouraged to ask some questions live on the call.

There will also be a live YouTube broadcast of the discussion below for anyone who wants to let it play in the background or watch without participating in the Q&A.

Here’s the information you’ll need to join: