#209: Brentt Baltimore, Principal at Greycroft, a Full Lifecycle Investor, on His Journey Into VC, Becoming a Kauffman Fellow, BLCK VC, What Startup Founders Need to Know About Raising Capital, Equity Splits, and Scaling

Brentt Baltimore is a Principal at Greycroft. Based in the Los Angeles office, Brentt focuses on investment opportunities in enterprise software. He has led Greycroft’s investments in Mapped, Agni, Craft, and Smrt. Brentt is a Kauffman Fellow and a member of Class 25.

Prior to joining Greycroft, Brentt led business development at Operator Inc., a venture stage company in the conversational commerce space and worked on technology commercialization at Numenta Inc., a machine intelligence research company. Brentt was also an Associate at Detroit Venture Partners. He began his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse in Los Angeles.

Brentt graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a BA in Economics and holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

About Our Partners

This episode is also brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models.

Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country’s fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work”​, 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI.

Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba.

Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast.

Some of the Topics Covered by Brentt Baltimore in this Episode

• What areas Greycroft is focused on
• Why Brentt wanted to get involved with venture capital and what was most appealing to him
• How Brentt joined Detroit Venture Partners
• The business of VC
• Why Brentt decided to get operator experience between venture roles
• Getting an MBA
• How Brentt ended up at Greycroft and why he chose it
• Why Brentt became a Kauffman Fellow and what the experience is like
• What early-stage founders need to know about raising capital
• Understand your "why" as a founder and being able to tell your story
• How Brentt is helping improve diversity in startups and venture capital with BLCK VC
• How early-stage founders should think through equity splits
• The operating and investing side of scaling a startup
• The most impactful book for Brentt

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