In this episode of the Give First podcast, Brad Feld talks with Scott Dorsey, co-founder of High Alpha and former CEO of ExactTarget, the email marketing pioneer acquired by Salesforce. Scott shares his journey from launching a startup with no technical background to building a company of 2,000 employees, going public, and running Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

The conversation dives into why relationships and core values matter as much as product and market, how emotional intelligence shapes leadership, and what it means to mentor by guiding rather than controlling. Scott also reflects on failure, empathy for founders, and the importance of playing multi-turn games in venture.

For founders wondering how to practice give first without being taken advantage of, Scott offers timeless advice: everyone can be both a mentor and a mentee, no matter where they are in their journey.

Scott Dorsey ➡️ https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-dorsey-096b393/

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In this episode of the Give First podcast, Brad Feld talks with Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Hello Alice, about what it takes to build and scale a platform serving over 1.5M small business owners.

Elizabeth shares how Hello Alice became a critical lifeline during COVID, launching grant programs, pivoting product builds, and creating community hubs for entrepreneurs in crisis. She reflects on the tension of running a venture-backed social enterprise, the lessons from winning a landmark federal lawsuit, and how AI and open banking could transform access to capital for underrepresented founders.

This conversation shines a light on the entrepreneurs who keep our communities running, and the technology helping them thrive.

Follow Elizabeth Gore here 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethgoreusa/

Check out Hello Alice 👉 https://helloalice.com/

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In this episode of the Give First podcast, Brad Feld reconnects with Landon Young, pre-seed investor at Elevate Ventures and a longtime builder of startup ecosystems. Landon shares stories from both sides of the table, as a founder and investor, including what it means to write the first check when a company is still just a sketch on a napkin.

They revisit the early days of the Kansas City Startup Village, the ripple effects of Google Fiber and Techstars, and how a single idea sparked a movement in startup philanthropy.

From coffee shop meetings to complex donations, this conversation is a powerful reminder that the smallest bets, on people, on timing, on place, can shape entire communities.

Check out 👉 donateequity.com

Elevate Ventures 👉https://elevateventures.com/

Follow Landon Young on LinkedIn 👉https://www.linkedin.com/in/landonyoung/

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