In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Marco Vienna, co‑founder of fintech venture firm Smart Capital. Marco shares a personal story about leaving college early, arguing that conformity often sacrifices personal happiness. He discusses how venture capital will evolve over the next five years, likening the shift to college basketball recruiting: as capital floods traditional startup hubs, investors will look beyond those hotspots, making funding more geographically ubiquitous. He offers broad business advice—if you’re not infatuated with your work, find something you love, because passion drives resourcefulness. Marco reflects on his younger self, emphasizing the need to prioritize mental health, use daily outdoor activities, yoga, skiing, and cooking to reset, and work smarter rather than harder. He defines happiness as a baseline contentment across all life domains, distinct from momentary stimulation. The book that impacted him most is Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which reshaped his view of purpose and suffering. His favorite quote is a Steve Jobs line about not wasting time living someone else’s life, underscoring individuality in defining success. Finally, he directs listeners to his LinkedIn and Instagram for contact.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola! ¡Hola!
All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. Today I have Marco Viena with us. He's the co-founder of Smart Capital. So welcome to the show, Marco.
Hey, Tyler. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Thanks for coming on, and we'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Marco, is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Definitely, that's a great question. So when I was in college, I started a few companies and one really started to take off. And eventually it was clear that dropping out of college was a smart decision. It was also clear that I was the only one that thought that was a smart decision, like in my network, including like my parents especially. And the underlying message is that conformity makes everyone happy except yourself. So I had to choose to make myself happy by dropping out instead of other people happy by conforming to societal norms such as getting a college degree.
Yes, man, I can 100% relate to that. I dropped out as well.
Nice, I'm glad to hear it.
Yeah, dude, best decision I ever made, I think.
I agree.
The next question I have for you is, what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Totally. So I work in financial technology, and right now, especially venture capital. So instead of venture capital, it's still really old school, but about 5 years from now, I think that venture capital will be conducted really differently, especially pertaining to how people are sourcing and investing in startups. I think that venture capital money will be more ubiquitous and available regardless of where you live. And I can actually analogize this to college basketball recruiting. I read this in Innovation Blind Spot, which is a great book by Ross Baird. So in the nascent stages of college basketball recruiting, coaches would go to like the hotspots of where players were, such as like Raleigh, North Carolina, Philadelphia, New York City, stuff like that. But those areas became really diluted because there are more coaches searching for good players in those cities than there were good players available. So the coaches started, and they had to start looking in different places for good players and realize that there are good players all over the country. And today, this is happening in venture capital companies. So there's more venture capital money trying to invest in startups than there are good startups in these startup-dense cities. So venture capital money is starting to look at other geographical places to invest, which will be great for the VCs because they're going to find more great companies and it's great for entrepreneurs because funding will be more ubiquitous.
Yes, and I, uh, and for those that don't know, um, we had Paul Foley on here as well, the co-founder of Smart Capital, and I totally agree. I love your guys' vision and where you guys are going with it, so I'm excited to see the company grow. Um, and the next question is, what's your best piece of overall business advice, not necessarily industry-specific?
Totally. And I think that this is something that's almost hackneyed, but it's really important, is if you're not infatuated by what you do, then you need to go find something new. In the modern era, if you find something you love, then you're going to be really good at it because you'll be able to find the resources you need online to learn whatever you need to do whatever you love doing.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Um, that's tough, but I think that frankly, I think it's like I should have prioritized my mental health. Like when, when, when you're young, you feel pretty immortal. Um, and I used to work way too hard and like, don't get me wrong, I still put in a lot of hours every week, but I now work smarter. And I make sure to utilize like the outdoors every day to reset mentally, or I go to yoga to meditate, I go skiing, I cook. I don't like only work. I guess the more precise advice to myself would really be to find the things that will shut off my mind from work and I utilize those things so that way when I do work, I can work harder.
Yes. And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
That's a big question, but I think the first step is actually to understand the difference from stimulation and happiness. Stimulation is doing things you love, such as traveling or hanging out with your friends. Your level of happiness is actually your base state of mind when you aren't stimulated. I think the key to happiness is being at least content with every aspect of your life. For instance, Maybe your company is doing amazing and you have great friends and you're in a great relationship with someone you love, but perhaps your fitness is lacking. And the fact that you aren't happy with your fitness may make yourself unhappy in general, even though the rest of your life is great. So by making sure not to neglect any aspect of your life that affects your happiness, you'll ultimately be the happiest you can be.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Definitely Man's Search for Meaning. It's a book by Viktor Frankl. So just kind of like, it talks a lot about how to find your core purpose in life. And that's not necessarily singular, like it can change, you know, multiple times a year over the course of your life. And it really talked about how to gauge what purpose is. He provides this example of a man whose wife died 5 years prior, and he was just completely beside himself, still extremely depressed. He met with Victor and he said, "I can't live my life anymore. I'm just too sad to do the things I enjoy doing every day." Victor says, "Well, would it be rather your wife died? I mean, that you died and your wife is suffering?" He's like, "No, of course not." He's like, "Well, You're now— your core purpose in life today is that you're suffering for your wife, for instance. So it kind of like spun the meaning of core purpose and like how we find fulfillment on its head. And that really was inspiring.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
So I'm a huge Steve Jobs fan because I'm originally from Palo Alto, and he has a lot of quotes about being an individual. And one that I can remember is that your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. And in other words, you don't get to decide what makes you happy and how you define success and what you spend your time doing and what you're passionate about if you're looking at society to answer those questions or your friends answer those questions, your family answer those questions. You get to decide all those things. And I really love that quote because truly being an individual and deciding like how I define success and how— what makes me happy and stuff like that is something I'll be working on the rest of my life.
Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Totally. LinkedIn, Instagram are good. Marco Vienna.
Perfect. Easy enough. Thanks again, man.
Yeah, thanks, Tyler. Take it easy.
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