Turning your passion into a billion-dollar company is exactly what Socrates Rosenfeld did. After spending seven years in the military as a helicopter pilot, Socrates suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and turned to cannabis for healing therapy. He always knew that the plant had healing factors. He then used his eCommerce skills to make purchasing cannabis online a simple process for others too. In turn, his company, Jane Technologies, has supported local cannabis retailers across the nation.

DealMakers

Socrates Rosenfeld On Growing His Sales From $100 Million to $1.6 Billion In Just One Year

Born and raised in the city of Los Angeles, Alex has always wanted to solve the problems of the city. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics and a Master's degree in Fine Arts, filming, and Production. His most epic contribution to the city and world is being a serial entrepreneur who has raised firms with one almost merging for $300 million dollars. Alex's venture, Metropolis has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Dragoneer Investment Group, RXR Realty, Halogen Ventures, and 3L capital.

Alex Israel On Raising $60 Million To Reimagine Modern Day Parking

Pierre Dubuc is a French businessman born in Normandy, France. He has had a passion for educating the masses since middle school. His first project was simply to build a free online course for all subjects in France free for all to access. The team continued to keep the project alive from 1999 to 2013 when they got the drive to commercialize it into an educational company. The company, Openclassrooms has gone through blitz-scaling over the past few years to form a massive global educator. It has raised funding from top-tier investors like Lumos Capital Group, General Atlantic, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Salesforce Ventures.

Pierre Dubuc On Raising $150 Million From Mark Zuckerberg And Others To Reinvent Education Online

Justin Borgman was born in Chicago and was raised in Akron. He went through public school with a big dream to change the world one day. He learned a lot from his mom. In high school, he was the studious type and went onto college and an MBA where he found the “eureka” moment to change data analytics for good. Justin's venture, Starburst has raised funding from top-tier investors like Index Ventures, Coatue, Salesforce Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Justin Borgman On Building A $1.6 Billion Business By Creating A Single Point Of Access To All Your Data

Marnix Broer is a Dutch businessman who has continually found entrepreneurial opportunities within the environment around him. His love for business has been seen since his childhood when he started selling old nails to his neighbors at a young age. His current business grew from a challenge at college that ended up spiraling to great success in the Netherlands and Europe. StuDocu has successfully raised financing from top-tier investors like Partech, Piton Capital, Point Nine, and Peak.

Marnix Broer On Raising $50 Million To Create A Note-Sharing Network For Students

Uri Marchand has already raised tens of millions of dollars for his latest startup. He recently appeared on the Dealmakers Show to share the latest developments at Overwolf, and his journey building companies. His venture has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Marker, Ubisoft, Kevin Chu, and Liberty Media.

Uri Marchand On Raising $75 Million To Unite The In-Game Creator Community

Jeevan Kalanithi scaled and sold his first tech business before raising over $80M to fund and scale his latest startup venture, OpenSpace. His venture has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Alkeon Capital, JLL Spark, Zigg Capital, and Menlo Ventures.

Jeevan Kalanithi On Raising $80 Million To See Construction Sites From Anywhere

Everett Cook has gone from young entrepreneur to investment banking and building a big fintech startup of his own. His venture, Rho Business Banking has raised more than $130 Million from top-tier investors like Rogue Capital, Eric Kinariwala, M13, and Josh Stech.

Everett Cook On Raising $130 Million To Transform Business Banking

Oz Alon’s journey is a living story and a fairy tale of how he and his wife met at around age 13 and became friends and managed to build a huge business. Both of them are co-founders of Honeybook which they created on a whim after a generous offer. Their story is exciting, inspiring, positive, and filled with many lessons for entrepreneurs. The venture, Honeybook has raised funding from top-tier investors like Tiger Global Management, Zeev Ventures, Citi Ventures, and Durable Capital Partners.

Oz Alon On Building A $1 Billion Company By Reinventing Business Management For SMBs

Oron Afek has already built several companies from the ground up. His newest venture, Vim brings together all that he has learned so far, and has already attracted $100M in capital. Oron has successfully acquired funding from top-tier investors like Optum Ventures, Anthem, Frist Cressey Ventures, and Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Oron Afek On Raising $100 Million To Cure The US Healthcare System

As a child, Xu was taught to be both resourceful and hardworking. He learned from his father’s enterprises and started building websites from an early age before turning into an entrepreneur. Today, he has successfully raised more than $65M for his venture from top-tier investors like Newion, Jelte Vrijhoef, SmartFin, and Jerome Laredo.

Zhong Xu On Raising $65 Million In 6 Weeks To Streamline Food Orders

John Kim grew up on computers. He has been a pro-gamer and built a gaming company fresh out of university. He was able to sell that firm for $10M, and start a social gaming site. He pivoted from a social app to his current model that has raised $200M. His venture, Sendbird has raised financing from top-tier investors like World Innovation Lab (WiL), Meritech Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, and Emergence.

John Kim On Building A $1 Billion Business By Enabling Group Voice And Video Calls For Any App

Hari Ravichandran grew his first startup into a multi-billion dollar business. Then his entrepreneurial DNA drove him to start all over from scratch again. He started Aura, a venture that has earned funding from top-tier investors like Warburg Pincus, General Catalyst, and WndrCo.

Hari Ravichandran On Building A $3.5 Billion Company And Raising $450 Million To Make The Internet Safer

Philip Belamant has been there, made mistakes, and come up with great solutions for the customers that have helped him build multi-million dollar companies in developing and developed economies. He was able to achieve remarkable success despite dropping out of college to pursue business. His latest venture, Zilch has raised funding from top-tier investors like Goldman Sachs Asset Management, dmg Ventures, M&F Fund, and Gauss Ventures.

Philip Belamant On Raising $230 Million To Help You Buy Now, Pay Later With Zero Interest

Jakob Freund’s business has grown from a small services business to a large venture-backed enterprise with customers like NASA. His company, Camunda has raised financing from top-tier investors like Highland Europe and Insight Partners.

Jakob Freund On Raising $100 Million To Streamline Business Processes

The DealMakers show features entrepreneurs that have been very successful at raising capital or getting their company acquired.