91: Erik Torenberg, Co-Founder of Village Global & On Deck

Square One: Conversations with the Best in Business

Higher education is currently undergoing one of the most significant transformational shifts the world has ever seen. On this podcast, we’ve talked to a number of companies disrupting higher ed - online bootcamps, vertical labor marketplaces and coaching platforms.

This week’s guest is taking aim at the entire "university bundle" - network, community, credentials and education. Erik Torenberg is the Founder and Chairman of OnDeck and Co-Founder of Village Global, a $150M venture fund.

On Deck aims to take the “university bundle” and apply it to the entire lifecycle of a person’s career. On Deck recently raised a $20M Series A led by Keith Rabois of Founder’s Fund to build “the Stanford of the Internet.”

In this episode, Erik and I chatted about his early experiences at Rap.fm and being employee #1 at Product Hunt. We then dove deep into all things OnDeck - specifically, how he is thinking of building a new type of university that will be around for the next 100+ years.