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June 17, 2025

HG Ventures Managing Director John Glushik Named to GCV Powerlist for Second Consecutive Year

John Glushik has been named to the 2025 Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Powerlist. The list celebrates individuals making the most significant impact in the global corporate venture capital ecosystem and this marks the second year in a row that John has been recognized among the top 100 CVC leaders worldwide.

John’s continued inclusion on the Powerlist reflects not only his leadership at HG Ventures but also the strength and values of the team behind him.

“This recognition is really a testament to the entire HG Ventures team,” said John. “It’s their talent, dedication, and partnership with founders that drive our success.”

The HG Ventures team is further represented in GCV’s 2025 Emerging Leaders list, which highlights rising stars shaping the future of corporate venturing. This year, both Ginger Rothrock and Jon Schalliol earned spots on the prestigious list. Their inclusion underscores HG Ventures’ depth of talent and commitment to developing the next generation of industry leaders.

Learn more about the GCV Powerlist here.

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June 9, 2025

New Platform Manager Reinforces HG Ventures’ Commitment to Adding Value

HG Ventures has appointed Sarah Schlifke to the position of Platform Manager, in which role she will serve as a strategic connector and builder across HG Ventures’ portfolio, The Heritage Group operating companies, and the startup ecosystem by driving collaboration, supporting pilots, and enabling growth for early-stage companies.

Sarah brings more than 15 years of experience leading cross-functional teams, product innovation, and strategic operations across both high-growth and established organizations. Most recently, she led wholesale strategy for Renovation Brands, supporting multiple national retailers and marketplaces. Prior to that, she held several leadership roles at Delta Faucet Company, where she helped launch a Smart Home IoT platform, conducted M&A diligence, and shepherded several R&D product launches. Known for her ability to align teams, simplify complexity, and build systems that scale, Sarah is deeply passionate about helping companies turn bold visions into actionable roadmaps.

“It is unusual for an investment team of our size to have a Platform Manager, but we see it as an incredibly important position,” said HG Ventures’ Managing Director, John Glushik. “We want to add value throughout the life of our relationships with our portfolio companies, and the Platform Manager has a vital role to play in ensuring that happens, by identifying opportunities, creating connections and clearing the path to successful collaboration. Sarah’s wide-ranging experience makes her ideally suited for this.”

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June 5, 2025

The start-up CEO balance: Leading with Vision and Operating with Discipline

Venture Director, Mitch Black explains why startup CEOs must balance bold vision with disciplined execution, and how understanding one’s own strengths can make all the difference. Drawing from both personal experience and his work mentoring founders, Mitch offers practical insights for navigating this leadership challenge.

Many first-time founders and entrepreneurs struggle to balance big-picture vision with day-to-day execution. Especially in the early stages, founders are expected to articulate an inspiring future while also delivering results in the here and now. Doing either well is a challenge, but both? After many years of leading organizations, I am now advising and mentoring start-up CEOs and founding teams and see the struggle of balancing vision and operating discipline consistently.

Finding the Balance: Vision vs. Execution

Vision is a long-term, aspirational goal that defines where a company wants to be in the future. The founder normally “sees” the WHY and even the WHY NOW in projecting the company’s future impact. Meanwhile, operating discipline in a startup refers to the ability to consistently execute business activities with focus, structure, and accountability, even during the roller coaster ride that describes early-stage companies.

So how do I know if I am better at one or the other?

Many people assume that all founder CEOs are magnetic personalities and see the world from 50,000 feet and motivate people through sheer will. While many founders certainly fit that description, others may be more naturally technical and internally focused; and while these leaders are skilled at building, aligning resources and developing a solution to solve a market-driven problem, scaling a business with vision to build long-term value can be a challenge. The former is more common, but both are important to succeed.

I find founders and entrepreneurs typically already have vision and then learn operating discipline. And learning it really is critical. It is a key point to enabling startups to scale successfully versus those businesses that fade away. This starts with strategic planning and milestones then evolves into KPIs and tactical measures underpinned by team communication. There are many frameworks designed for driving operating disciplines such as OKRs, SMART Goals or EOS. My advice, just pick one and stick to it. Be consistent.

Know Your Strengths

Few founder CEOs possess both vision and operational excellence right out of the gate. I started my career in sales and then management in a larger company well before leading a company. So while my ability to apply vision early in my career was limited, the benefit of working for a larger company was understanding first-hand how operating disciplines in your business can drive organizational accountability and execution.

If you are visionary founder and unsure if operational discipline is a strength, ask your mentors, investors or friends, or consider taking a simple personality/EQ test, like StrengthsFinder or DiSC.

Knowing who you are is a gift and attempting to be someone else is a recipe for failure. If a visionary founder lacks operating discipline, it can be learned, to a point. I recommend always leaning into your strengths and offsetting weaknesses by surrounding yourself with people that complement you. If possessing or developing operation discipline is a stretch, find a co-founder or key number two with the ability to develop a disciplined operating process and rhythm around your vision.

Simply put, the more successful founders that evolve into great CEOs often possess both vision and operational excellence. If it is still in the early stages of the business, know who you are now and act accordingly.

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June 3, 2025

Voxel Raises $44M in Series B Funding to Transform Workplace Safety with its AI-Powered Platform

Voxel, the AI company revolutionizing workplace safety and risk, today announced it has raised $44 million in Series B funding led by NewRoad Capital Partners with participation from current investors Eclipse, Rite Hite, Tokio Marine, and MTech as well as HG Ventures and Whitestone. This round brings the company’s total funding of $61 million to date. Voxel will use the funding to accelerate R&D and deepen its AI capabilities—enhancing real-time computer vision models and expanding data insights. The company will also invest in growing its team of industry experts to ensure Voxel’s customers don’t just benefit from cutting-edge AI solutions, but also decades of applied experience in industrial environments.

Despite most companies having a heavy focus on improving safety, 2.78M workers lose their lives every year to work-related incidents globally—a stark reminder that traditional safety approaches fall short. Voxel helps organizations prevent accidents before they happen by identifying potential hazards and unsafe behaviors in real-time, enabling supervisors and safety managers to take immediate action. By integrating directly with existing security cameras to detect unsafe behaviors and operational inefficiencies autonomously, Voxel makes proactive prevention possible at scale.

“We’re developing AI to support the workers performing demanding jobs day in and day out—on warehouse floors, in factories, in ports–really any industrial environment,” said Vernon O’Donnell, CEO of Voxel. “Leaders don’t need more dashboards or things to do on a daily basis: They need tools that drive action, improve training, and keep teams protected in a way that is part of their daily workflow. Our deep commitment to understanding our customers; operations is why they see up to an 80% reduction in high-risk behaviors just months after deployment.”

Deployed by companies like Albertsons, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Americold, AGI, Port of Virginia, and Berry Global, Voxel is becoming the trusted partner for leading enterprises across logistics, retail, warehousing, and manufacturing. Beyond best-in-class AI, the intuitive product dashboard consolidates AI-generated insights, giving teams clear visibility into emerging risks. This allows safety, operations, and HR professionals to address issues before they result in injuries—fundamentally shifting workplace safety from reactive response to proactive prevention.

Voxel’s growth is supported by strong performance across key areas of the business:

  • Financial Performance: 147% year-over-year revenue growth with 202% net revenue retention;
  • Customer Impact: 91% reduction in recordable injuries, with one site saving over $2.2M in direct costs over a 2-year period; and
  • Market Adoption: Expansion across retail, logistics, and manufacturing sectors, with
    five new Fortune 500 clients in Q1 2025.