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On Founder Real Talk episode #22, I have the good fortune of chatting with Kevin Hartz, the co-founder, Chairman and former CEO of Eventbrite. Kevin has been a serial founder (he also founded and took public a second company, Xoom, earlier in his career) and a successful investor as well. we cover topics such as the value of platform businesses, the importance of harnessing developer communities, and the upside from focusing on customers versus competitors. You’ll love listening to Kevin’s deep thinking and wisdom!

I’m delighted to announce that Kong, the world’s most popular open source API gateway — and API and service lifecycle management platform — has raised $43 million in a Series C financing with participation from GGV and existing investors including Index, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV and new investor World Innovation Lab. We’ve been tracking the progress of Kong, both as a highly successful open source project and as a rapidly growing commercial company, for some time, and at GGV, we’re very excited to finally become an investor in the company. Our enthusiasm results from Kong’s dynamic founders and the team they’re assembling, the rapid growth and commitment of its open source community, and the commercial momentum Kong has built with large enterprises adopting a modern API-driven architecture. Aghi and Marco devote meaningful time and energy investing in the open source community, and the company continues to build meaningful value into Kong open source.

Entrepreneurs starting companies need and deserve a lot of support. Creating something from nothing is clearly not for the faint of heart. There are roadblocks in nearly every direction, but founders find ways to surmount even the most daunting obstacles. While the job of starting and building a start-up is incredibly challenging, the good news is that there is a lot of useful information and tools now available to entrepreneurs to help them on the early-stage journey.

On Founder Real Talk episode #20 with the incomparable Caryn Marooney, we tap into Caryn’s experience and wisdom to explore issues around marketing, brand and communications. Want to know what to focus on when it comes to a startup brand? how to build your communications strategy? I’m super proud of this episode and believe its a must-listen for founders and execs.