Category Visionaries

Khaled Boukadoum, Founder of Torch Dental: $49.5 Million Raised to Transform Dental Supply Management Through Digital Innovation

Torch Dental is revolutionizing the dental supply chain with a digital-first platform that's raised $49.5M in funding. The company is transforming how dental practices manage, order, and budget their supplies through a technology-driven approach that provides transparency and efficiency in an industry traditionally resistant to change. In this episode of Category Visionaries, Khaled Boukadoum shares insights from Torch Dental's journey from door-to-door sales in Manhattan to a nationwide platform serving dental practices across 48 states.
Topics Discussed:
The origins of Torch Dental and identifying supply chain inefficiencies
Evolution from field sales to digital-first acquisition
Building and scaling marketing operations in a traditional industry
Competing with established incumbents through technological innovation
Geographic expansion strategy and future growth plans
 
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Start with Deep Problem Understanding: Khaled's journey began by deeply understanding the dental practice ecosystem through his sister's experience. As he explains, "She kind of came out of school after years and years of clinical training... and really isn't much training on [running a practice]." This firsthand exposure to the market need helped shape their solution.
Embrace High-Touch Product Development: Early success came from direct customer interaction. As Khaled notes, "We actually went and started knocking on doors in New York... we'd sign up a few practices, and then we'd run back to our office and we'd actually start chatting with our CTO and kind of make adaptations or changes to the product." This rapid feedback loop was crucial for product-market fit.
Demonstrate Clear ROI for Traditional Industries: When selling to technology-resistant industries, value proposition must be unmistakable. As Khaled shares, "You really have to make sure the value prop is super clear and the ROI to the customer is apparent and materially better for them in order for them to adopt the tech."
Leverage Data for Personalized Sales: Torch built what they call "pre-torch analytics" which, as Khaled describes, allows them to "create a whole custom demo for them, showing them how much they could save on exactly the same products." This data-driven approach makes the value proposition concrete and personalized.
Focus Marketing Efforts on Measurable Outcomes: On marketing strategy, Khaled emphasizes, "We've learned to be super metrics focused... to be really focused on kind of demand capture and demand gen opposed to more of kind of just general brand level marketing." This approach ensures marketing spend generates tangible results.
Choose Strategic Expansion Channels: Understanding where your customers are is crucial. As Khaled explains, "We're focused exclusively on dental practices at this stage. So we know who our customer is, we know where they live, and we're just really targeted in our approach on how to communicate with that and where to communicate with them."
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 
 

Inna Tokarev Sela, CEO & Founder of illumex: $13 Million Raised to Power the Future of Enterprise LLM Deployments

illumex is pioneering the future of enterprise data access through their generative semantic fabric platform, which enables self-service data analytics for every employee within large organizations like banks, insurance companies, and pharma corporations. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Inna Sela shared how with $13 Million in funding, illumex is transforming how business users interact with enterprise data by providing a ChatGPT-like experience that's hallucination-free, governed, and fast.
Topics Discussed:
The evolution of illumex's go-to-market strategy from targeting unicorn startups to enterprise customers
Creating a new category called "generative semantic fabric"
Building a complete platform offering versus selling individual features
Content-driven marketing strategy focused on thought leadership
The role of controversial opinions in driving market education
Strategic importance of in-house marketing expertise
Leveraging corporate venture capital for distribution channels
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Adapt to market conditions: When Inna saw the 2022 downturn affecting their initial target market of software unicorns, she pivoted to enterprise customers. This required starting with paid POCs and gradually working up to larger deals with major corporations.
Category creation requires patience: Inna recognized from day one they were creating a new category. As she explained, "I was aware it's category creation... But for the sake of fundraising, I had to bring those parallels... so I was trying to bring these parallels to existing tools for investors to understand where we are."
Build for enterprise scale: Inna shares, "For the offering that we provide to companies like the augmented data management and access, you really need to have small Swiss panel. So it's not enough to have just one fork or one component of the Swiss knife, you really have to have full offering which is minimal."
Take controversial positions: Rather than making incremental improvements, Inna advocated for a completely different approach to data management. "I actually thought it's a benefit to have controversial opinions and to some extent differentiate product because this is how you make change," she explains.
Blend investor expertise: "You really need to have a blend of investors with different appetite and different business acumen so it can serve you on hiring, on reach out on different aspects of investors value add," Inna advises about fundraising strategy.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 

Shelley Copsey, CEO & Co-Founder of FYLD: $48 Million Raised to Transform Field Work Execution Category

FYLD has raised $48M to transform how infrastructure field workers execute their daily tasks safely and efficiently. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, I spoke with Shelley Copsey, CEO and Co-Founder of FYLD, about creating a new category in field work execution and building during a pandemic. The company has achieved 3x ARR growth last year and is on track to double bookings revenue this year, with near-zero churn rates.
Topics Discussed:
The daily challenges of infrastructure field workers in utilities, roads, and railways
Creating and capturing demand in a new software category
Enterprise sales strategy in the infrastructure sector
Scaling during COVID with remote customer discovery
The reality of labor shortages in field operations
Building customer trust in critical infrastructure
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Rethink conventional wisdom on market problems: While many discuss a labor shortage in field operations, FYLD's data shows 30-35% standing time across companies. Shelley explains, "I'm not convinced that there is a labor crisis... when you begin to look at that level of standing time, I think you've got to question if we've got a labor shortage or we've just got a problem of understanding what the people in the field are doing." Sometimes the most discussed market problem isn't actually the root cause.
Design pricing models that encourage full adoption: FYLD shifted from per-seat licensing to enterprise-wide deals after realizing usage limitations undermined platform value. Shelley notes, "If what your premise is by collecting large volumes of data, you can help people do their jobs better and more efficiently, your go-to-market model can actually undermine delivering the benefit from the platform." Pricing should align with your product's value creation mechanism.
Leverage industry-specific collaboration dynamics: In infrastructure, safety improvements aren't viewed as competitive advantages but as shared responsibilities. As one CEO told Shelley, "If you can help me keep workers safer, more mums and dads are going to think that this is a good career for their kid... if we can all keep people safer, we're all going to be able to grow as an industry." Understanding these dynamics can accelerate market penetration through referrals.
Navigate complex stakeholder alignment: Enterprise sales in infrastructure require buy-in from COOs, heads of safety, CIOs, and CFOs. Shelley shares, "Enterprise sales cycles are well known to take 9, 12, 15 months. In the infrastructure industry, we're moving a bit quicker than that." Success requires systematically addressing each stakeholder's priorities while maintaining momentum.
Build for end-users first: FYLD maintains an 8/10 customer satisfaction score among field workers, unprecedented in their industry. Shelley emphasizes, "There's no point going out and selling a product related to fieldwork if the field workers hate using the platform and won't adopt it." In B2B, while buyers sign the checks, end-user adoption drives long-term success.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 

Funding the Future: Susan Liu, Partner at Uncork Capital

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — Funding the Future. In today's episode, we're speaking with Susan Liu, Partner at Uncork Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm investing out of a $200 Million fund.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Shift to Seed-Stage Investing: Susan transitioned from later-stage investing at Scale Venture Partners to focusing on seed-stage at Uncork Capital, driven by her passion for working with founders at the earliest stages of their journey.
State of Enterprise Software: The current enterprise software market is challenging, with traditional SaaS seeing budget constraints. However, AI-driven solutions are gaining traction, often backed by separate AI budgets within enterprises.
AI Investment Strategy: While there’s a surge in AI startups, Susan emphasizes the importance of founder-market fit and differentiation, as many companies are tackling similar problems in the AI space.
Evaluating Early-Stage Startups: Susan looks for a strong founding team with market experience, a large addressable market, and a compelling product wedge when evaluating seed-stage opportunities.
Traits of Successful Founders: Founders with deep industry experience, grit, and the ability to learn quickly tend to have a higher success rate, particularly in B2B markets.
Advice for Series A: For seed-stage founders preparing for Series A, Susan advises demonstrating strong revenue growth and capital efficiency, as these are key factors that attract investors in the current market.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 

Harry Croydon, Co-Founder of MIC Global: $13 Million Raised to Build the Future of Embedded Microinsurance

MIC Global, backed by $13 Million in funding, is revolutionizing the insurance industry through embedded microinsurance solutions. In this episode of Category Visionaries, Co-Founder Harry Croydon shares his journey from launching one of the first cyber insurance companies in 1999 to building a global embedded insurance platform that meets the evolving needs of the digital economy.
Topics Discussed:
The evolution of insurance technology from 1999 to present
Surviving the dot-com bubble and post-9/11 market challenges
The emergence of embedded microinsurance as a new category
Building a global insurance infrastructure
Multi-channel distribution strategy through brokers and insurance partners
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 

Amar Kendale, President & Co-Founder of Homeward: $70 Million Raised to Transform Rural Healthcare Through Technology

Homeward, a healthcare technology company that's raised over $70M, is pioneering a new approach to rural healthcare delivery by combining technology with in-person care. In this episode of Category Visionaries, Amar Kendale, President and Co-Founder of Homeward shares how the company is addressing the 23% higher mortality rate in rural America through an innovative care delivery model and technology platform.
Topics Discussed:
Homeward's evolution from initial hypothesis to market-validated solution
The unique challenges of healthcare delivery in rural communities
Building trust in healthcare through local partnerships
Technology's role in scaling healthcare access
Value-based care implementation and criticism
Market entry strategy for healthcare technology companies
 
GTM Lessons For B2B Founders:
Start with Operations, Not Technology: Amar emphasizes the importance of avoiding the "technologist's trap" of building before understanding. As he notes, "There's a trap a lot of technologists fall into... you have a vision for the way that technology can play a role, and you decide to start building first before you really know whether it's exactly the right problem or not." Instead, Homeward built minimal technology initially, embedding their tech team with clinicians to understand workflows before building solutions.
Challenge Initial Assumptions Through Market Testing: Homeward's early hypothesis about rural healthcare needs was incorrect. They assumed people without regular doctor visits needed primary care, but discovered that rural patients had doctors for acute care—they needed supplemental services for preventive care. As Amar explains, "What's different about the way people are consuming healthcare in rural is the thing we have to pay attention to."
Build Trust Through Local Presence: In healthcare, trust is paramount and historically local. Homeward succeeded by hiring local medical assistants and community health workers who understand the communities. "They have a really high degree of cultural competency. They are ambassadors for the Homeward brand... who can help us to spread that message," Amar shares.
Choose Strategic Markets for Scale: When selecting initial markets, Homeward focused on states with large Medicare populations to ensure sufficient scale. "You could easily die by a thousand cuts if you go after too small a market," Amar explains. Their success in Michigan and Minnesota created a template for future market expansion.
Design for Multiple Stakeholders: Healthcare technology requires satisfying multiple stakeholders—patients, providers, and payers. Amar warns, "If you focus on the patient and the payer and you leave out the provider, well, you may never get prescribed and you may never show up in the provider workflow." Successfully navigating this complexity creates defensive moats against competitors.
Partner with Long-Term Vision Aligned Investors: Homeward chose investors who shared their vision for transforming rural healthcare. Their lead investor, General Catalyst, pushed them to think bigger: "We were sheepishly sketching out the path to being a billion dollar business. And Hemant added the zero. He said this is easily a $10 billion business."
Focus on Early Validation and Responsible Growth: Despite rapid expansion (3-4x annual growth), Homeward maintains disciplined growth. Their approach is validated by an 80 NPS score, which Amar notes is "better than we ever did at Livongo or any other place we've been."
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 
 

Dan Rua, CEO of Admiral: $28 Million Raised to Build the Future of Visitor Relationship Management

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Dan Rua, CEO of Admiral, a visitor relationship management platform that has raised $28 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Creating a New Martech Category with Visitor Relationship Management (VRM): Dan shares Admiral’s mission to help websites build visitor relationships amid the rise of privacy regulations and ad blockers, moving from ad-centric to relationship-centric digital experiences.
Founding Admiral from a Key Industry Shift: After observing the challenges facing publishers due to ad blockers, GDPR, and data privacy regulations, Dan and his team launched Admiral to provide media publishers with a tool for direct, valuable visitor relationships.
Insights from Early Adoption: Securing partnerships with major clients, such as PGA Tour, helped Admiral validate its VRM approach. Dan describes the importance of targeting early adopters who deeply understand the value of long-term audience relationships.
Building Flexibility for Publishers: Recognizing the diverse needs of audiences, Admiral created a flexible, modular approach to VRM, allowing publishers to choose modules—such as adblock recovery or subscription paywalls—to best meet the needs of various user segments.
Prioritizing a Land-and-Expand Sales Model: Inspired by HubSpot’s modular growth strategy, Admiral focuses on starting with one pain point solution and then expanding into other VRM modules once trust is established with customers.
Leveraging Analytics and AI for Automation: Dan explains that future development for Admiral centers on AI-driven automation to optimize visitor engagement, promising an “easy button” solution that intelligently manages visitor journeys to maximize value without complex manual intervention.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 

Vijay Sikka, CEO & Founder of Sikka: $30 Million Raised to Power the Future of Retail Healthcare Technology

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Vijay Sikka, CEO and Founder of Sikka, a retail healthcare technology platform that has raised over $30 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Sikka’s Origin Story: Vijay’s journey began when he identified operational inefficiencies in his wife’s dental practice, realizing a massive opportunity to optimize revenues for healthcare providers across sectors like dental, veterinary, and optometry.
Tackling Fragmentation in Retail Healthcare: Sikka recognized the severe fragmentation in retail healthcare technology, with 400+ unique practice management systems, and seized the chance to unify them into one cohesive platform.
Strategic Expansion Beyond Dentistry: By 2016, Sikka expanded from a dental focus to retail healthcare at large, leveraging a Twilio-like API model to provide solutions across multiple specialties without forcing practices to retool.
A Channel-Based GTM Strategy: Realizing direct sales weren’t efficient in this fragmented market, Sikka developed a channel strategy, partnering with application builders in healthcare to amplify growth through trusted distribution networks.
Slow and Intentional Funding: Sikka bootstrapped for over a decade, focusing on building a technological moat and waiting until the timing was right before raising venture funding, which catalyzed the company’s rapid growth.
AI as the Core for Future Expansion: With proprietary dental and healthcare-focused AI models outperforming general LLMs, Sikka is set on leveraging AI to enhance insights, benchmarking, and clinical data applications for retail healthcare and beyond.
 
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 

Bill Moore, CEO and Founder of XONA: $30 Million Raised to Build the Future of OT User Access

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Bill Moore, CEO & Founder of XONA, an OT user access platform that has raised over $30 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
The Origin of XONA: Bill shared that XONA began with the goal of simplifying secure remote access for OT environments. Initially focused on making VDI simpler for the DoD, the company expanded into a broader secure access platform used widely in commercial sectors.
From Idea to Market: It took a year from concept to their first paying customer, achieved by working closely with beta customers and testing prototypes in real-world environments before having a fully developed product.
A Market Pivot: Although originally targeting the DoD, Bill discovered a huge opportunity in commercial OT sectors, particularly in natural gas distribution, which led to XONA's focus on industrial controls and OT systems.
The “Guerrilla” Marketing Strategy: Early on, Bill employed a scrappy, grassroots approach to marketing by attending industry events, shaking hands, and networking—long before they could afford a booth or formal marketing campaigns.
Category Creation in OT: XONA is redefining identity and access management for OT, where users interact with machines and operational processes rather than data. This approach requires distinct solutions from traditional IT systems, creating a new market category.
Global Expansion: XONA is now operating in over 35 countries through its partnership with GE, focusing on OT cybersecurity in sectors like power generation, manufacturing, and other critical infrastructure.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co
 
 

Alon Talmor, CEO & Founder of Ask-AI: $20 Million Raised to Power the Future of Enterprise AI

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Alon Talmor, CEO & Founder of Ask-AI, an AI technology company that's raised $20 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
AI's Impact on SaaS: Alon believes AI will eventually disrupt and consolidate the SaaS industry, transforming enterprise software and making many existing solutions obsolete.
Post-Exit Reflections: After selling his first company to Salesforce, Alon shared the psychological challenges of finding new goals post-exit, noting the sense of emptiness that can follow achieving major career milestones.
Founding Ask-AI: Inspired by cutting-edge AI research, Alon started Ask-AI in 2020, recognizing early the massive potential of generative AI before the technology gained widespread adoption.
Rise of Generative AI: While not surprised by the capabilities of ChatGPT, Alon was taken aback by the massive public hype and acceptance, which accelerated demand for AI solutions like Ask-AI's enterprise support tools.
Navigating a Crowded Market: With increasing competition in the AI space, Alon emphasizes the importance of early, face-to-face sales efforts and strategic partnerships to secure initial customers and stand out.
Investor Strategies: Alon advocates for raising capital from numerous smaller investors during early funding rounds to maximize networking opportunities and avoid relying solely on large VCs.
 
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. 
www.GlobalTalent.co