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Geeks Of The Valley

Geeks Of The Valley

By GeeksoftheValley

Geeks of the Valley connects with some of the brightest minds globally, who are leading their respective industries today. We discuss the hottest upcoming industry trends and how their work is affecting the global economy.
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#94: Venturing into Indonesia & Building Future Trends with Intudo Ventures' Eddy Chan

Geeks Of The ValleyMar 05, 2024

00:00
36:08
#94: Venturing into Indonesia & Building Future Trends with Intudo Ventures' Eddy Chan

#94: Venturing into Indonesia & Building Future Trends with Intudo Ventures' Eddy Chan

Eddy Chan is a founding partner of Intudo Ventures, an independent venture capital firm exclusively focused on investing in Indonesia. With approximately US$300 million in committed capital, Intudo Ventures serves as the "Indonesia-beachhead" strategy provider for top-tier institutions, Forbes Midas List investors, family offices worldwide, and a network of over 35 hyperlocal Indonesian conglomerates and families. Eddy's extensive background includes venture investments in startups like PayPal and Palantir, founding and operating venture-backed technology companies, practicing corporate law, and working as an investment banker. He holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.S. in Business Administration from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Intudo Ventures stands out as the largest early-stage investment team in Indonesia, supporting companies like Xendit, Pintu, Pinhome, and more. Eddy has been a featured speaker at prominent events, including SuperReturn Asia and Harvard Asia Business Conference, and actively engages with Indonesian talent through professional and student associations. With his expertise and connections, Eddy Chan plays a pivotal role in shaping Indonesia's venture capital landscape and driving Intudo Ventures' success in the market.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddychan/


Mar 05, 202436:08
#93: Unveiling India's Macro Trends & Providing Valuable Insights for Foreign Investors with 2am VC's Brendan Rogers

#93: Unveiling India's Macro Trends & Providing Valuable Insights for Foreign Investors with 2am VC's Brendan Rogers

Brendan Rogers is the Co-Founder of 2am [VC], an early-stage India Fund. Previously, he co-founded Wag! (NASDAQ) PET, the largest pet platform in the US. Brendan is a respected advisor and mentor to numerous companies, accelerators, and universities globally. He is a sought-after speaker at major startup conferences worldwide and has appeared on top podcasts in the industry, gaining millions of views. Prior to Wag!, Brendan co-founded a social discovery service with 50 million users across 10 countries, which was acquired by IAC in 2014. His entrepreneurial journey reflects his dedication, innovation, and influence in the startup ecosystem.


  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanprogers/
  • Website: https://www.2amvc.com/
Feb 18, 202427:41
#92: Revolutionizing Silicon Valley’s Future through Fresh Leadership & Bold Action with Joby Bernstein

#92: Revolutionizing Silicon Valley’s Future through Fresh Leadership & Bold Action with Joby Bernstein

Joby Bernstein and is running for Congress (CA-16) because it’s time for fresh leadership in Silicon Valley. He is deeply committed to addressing the pressing issues his district faces, from climate change to education and immigration.

Palo Alto is his home. Joby is an avid nature seeker, and spends his free time biking on Skyline and trail running in Wunderlich Park. But you don’t have to look far beyond his doorstep today to realize that our planet is in trouble. To effectively turn the tides on climate change, we’ll need to invest in protecting the environment, cultivate the best minds with accessible higher education, and retain the best talent through immigration reform.

Joby wants to bring fresh energy and innovative solutions to these challenges and help his community and nation thrive today and into the future. With a background in business, policy, and sustainability, he brings unique perspectives - backed by research and analytics - on how we can revitalize our country for generations to come.

  • Website: https://www.jobyforcongress.com/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joby-bernstein/
Jan 24, 202437:08
#91: The Future of Biotech & Investing in Cutting-Edge Technologies with Valhalla Ventures' Matthew King

#91: The Future of Biotech & Investing in Cutting-Edge Technologies with Valhalla Ventures' Matthew King

Matthew King is an Entrepreneurial Investor passionate about venture investing & building, deeptech, sustainability, mental health, wellness, automotive, luxury goods, and hospitality.
Currently Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Valhalla Ventures, a venture capital firm backing visionary founders at the forefront of social and technological breakthroughs.
Inveterate connector of extraordinary human beings who frequently colors outside the lines and thrives on helping founders accomplish legendary outcomes while helping investors produce stellar returns & impact.
Valhalla Ventures backs visionaries building enduring moats.
Today, the most enduring moats exist in physical technology (think industrials, space, chips, biology, defense, energy, etc) and media IP (think games).
Valhalla manages $200M+ in assets with $150M in committed capital across all vehicles to date. Our primary focus currently is deploying $35M in dry powder in Seed and Series A financings (and in between), investing $1M to $3M per company with a 5% minimum ownership target.


Valhalla's Limited Partner community includes:
1) C-suites/Managing Partners (current and former) of: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citadel, Bridgewater Associates, Oaktree Capital, Apollo Global, Point72, PayPal, Alibaba, Hillhouse Capital, NBC Universal, General Motors, Swiss Re, Discover, PizzaHut, DoorDash, DocuSign, Sandoz, Gusto, Guinness, Bitmain, Thomson Reuters, Yahoo, Zynga, the Dallas Cowboys, BlockTower Capital, and TopGolf; and
2) Board Members (current and former) of: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, MasterCard, MIO Partners, Fortress, BNY Mellon, RBC, Altria, ARM Semiconductor, SoFi, Warburg Pincus, Kraft, SABMiller, Cognizant, Western Union, Raine Group, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Wharton, and Johns Hopkins University.
Outside of work what energizes me is travel (40+ countries visited or lived in), electronic music, nature, and Burning Man (12x).

Jan 07, 202449:08
#90: Navigating the Gaming Revolution with Konvoy Ventures' Josh Chapman

#90: Navigating the Gaming Revolution with Konvoy Ventures' Josh Chapman

Josh Chapman is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Konvoy, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage companies in the video gaming industry. Their firm focuses on companies building technology, infrastructure, and platforms in the gaming industry. Prior to founding Konvoy, Josh worked at Blackrock and Morgan Stanley in New York City. 


  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshchapmanb/



Dec 18, 202322:07
#89: Unraveling the Japanese Venture Capital Market with Global Brain Corporation's Ken Kajii

#89: Unraveling the Japanese Venture Capital Market with Global Brain Corporation's Ken Kajii

Ken joined GB in 2021. As General Partner, he oversees the entire fund activities including strategy development, investment in Japanese and overseas startups, post-investment support, support for collaboration with corporations, fundraising, and forming/operating CVC funds. He is an expert in growth strategy and digital transformation based on his 17-year experience of strategic consulting. He also focuses on overseas fund deployment and investment.

Ken joined GB after working at NTT Group and McKinsey & Company. Ken was engaged in more than 270 projects with 1,500 consultants across 10 regions worldwide at McKinsey & Company. From 2011, Ken was the leader of technology, media & telecommunications group (TMT) at McKinsey Japan office. Ken has been passionate about driving technology-enabled business transformation that significantly increases competitive advantage of global TMT companies in Japan and overseas. Projects included company-wide transformation, growth strategy development, M&A/PMI, business portfolio restructuring, acceleration of new businesses/business growth, and establishment of global business. Prior to McKinsey, Ken joined NTT's R&D center as a software engineer / researcher, and later on became founding member of launching NTT Group's US office to start overseas operations.

Ken has lived and worked in 3 continents including Europe (Switzerland), US (NY, MA, and CA) and Japan (Tokyo, Hokkaido, and Yamaguchi). He enjoys playing soccer/tennis and running. Along with traveling, he has relocated more than 30 times so far.


  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenkajii/
Nov 20, 202330:52
#88: Bain & Company's Acquisition of Rainmaking APAC with COO Virginie Hello

#88: Bain & Company's Acquisition of Rainmaking APAC with COO Virginie Hello

Virginie Hello is an accomplished professional currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Rainmaking APAC, a globally recognized venture builder established in Denmark over 15 years ago. Rainmaking APAC has achieved remarkable success, boasting a diverse portfolio of more than 55 ventures, investments in nearly 1,000 startups, and strategic partnerships with over 100 leading corporations worldwide.


While the task of building corporate ventures may appear daunting, Rainmaking APAC has thrived due to two key differentiators that set it apart from others in the industry. Firstly, their unique risk-sharing model enables them to invest capital alongside corporate partners, aligning incentives and fostering collaborative growth. Secondly, the organization's teams consist of accomplished founders and investors who bring an authentic entrepreneurial approach to their work.


In her current role, Virginie Hello is dedicated to ensuring that each venture is led by exceptional talent and that the ideas and outcomes delivered not only meet but exceed expectations. Her focus lies in creating value for both corporate partners and the customers who benefit from the ventures. With a united team, Virginie strives to cultivate an environment where shared values of Entrepreneurship, Impact, and Kindness serve as the guiding principles in building exceptional ventures.


  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginie-hello/
Oct 22, 202326:59
#87: Web3 Payments for the Next Billion Users Across Asia with TransFi's Raj Kamal

#87: Web3 Payments for the Next Billion Users Across Asia with TransFi's Raj Kamal

Raj comes with a deep background across payments, tech and Web3 in a multitude of roles - operator, investor and consultant.

Raj's Past Experience:

  • Ex CEO, OYO Vacation Homes, a top 3 specialist vacation rental business (fully owned sub of OYO).
  • Ex Global Head of Investments and M&A for PayU, a Prosus Company (Prosus is a leading listed global technology investment company). Made investments globally across fintech companies including in Payments, Credit, Remittances and Crypto / Blockchain.
  • Ex McKinsey Partner serving banks, insurance companies, payments players and asset managers across the Asia Pacific. Leader of McKinsey’s Payments practice across the Asia Pacific.

Raj's Social Media

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raj-kamal-488a908/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/OneRajkamal


Sep 10, 202329:10
#86: Unveiling Compelling Investments in Emerging Markets with Etohum's Burak Büyükdemir

#86: Unveiling Compelling Investments in Emerging Markets with Etohum's Burak Büyükdemir

Burak Büyükdemir is a well-known investor, startup ecosystem builder, author, and founder. He is the founder of Etohum, a leading accelerator and seed investor organization in Turkey, as well as the founder of Startup Istanbul and Startup Turkey. Through these programs, he has supported and invested in over 100 startups, providing training, mentorship, and seed investment to help them grow and develop. He is known for his work supporting the global startup ecosystem and has a strong global network of contacts in the startup world. In addition to his work with startups, Burak has also written a book about the founding stories of internet startups in Turkey and has served as a part-time lecturer at Istanbul Technical University and Bahcesehir University.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/burakbuyukdemir/
  • Pitch Burak: https://airtable.com/shr8X5VdR7JTJ7X3q
Aug 21, 202324:31
#85: Building the Future of Japan's Startup Ecosystem with Antler's Ryo Umezawa

#85: Building the Future of Japan's Startup Ecosystem with Antler's Ryo Umezawa

Ryo Umezawa is a Partner leading Antler’s expansion into Japan. Prior to Antler, Ryo was a Principal at East Ventures, Japan, an early stage venture capital firm. As a serial entrepreneur, Ryo founded two companies, including AllCoupon Japan (acquired), and was Japan’s country manager for companies such as Tinder, Homeaway (Expedia Group) and Hailo. Ryo spent 10 years in the Philippines prior to studying International Business and Economics at Sophia University in Tokyo. Ryo has been selected as a Leader of Tomorrow at the 40th + 44th St. Gallen Symposium, as well as one of the first members of World Economic Forum, Global Shapers Community (GSC) in its Tokyo hub.


  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryoumezawa/


ロング:

10年間のフィリピン滞在を経て、2007年上智大学・比較文化学部卒業。在学中の2005年からインターンとしてジェイ・シードに参画し、複数の投資先企業で事業立ち上げやマーケティング業務に携わる。2008年から株式会社トラフィックゲート(現リンクシェア・ジャパン株式会社)にてiPhoneのアドネットワーク事業やアプリプロデュースを経験したあと起業。その後スタートアップや上場企業の顧問や株主として累計30社+に携わり、グローバルスタートアップタクシー配車アプリの日本法人HAILO株式会社の代表取締役社長、バケーションレンタル事業を展開しているNASDAQ上場企業HomeAwayの日本支社長、ソーシャルマッチングアプリ最大手のTinder日本支社長、East Ventures株式会社にてPrincipalを務め、現在はグローバル投資ファンドAntlerのパートナー・Antler株式会社の代表取締役、クリエイターニンジャ株式会社の代表取締役社長、株式会社nommocの取締役。

ライフワークとしては2010年及び2014年にSt. Gallen SymposiumにLeaders of Tomorrowに選出、続く2011年には世界経済フォーラム(World Economic Forum:通称ダボス会議)グローバルシェイパーズコミュニティ(Global Shapers Community)日本の若手リーダーに選出され活動。

ショート:

10年間のフィリピン滞在を経て、2007年上智大学・比較文化学部卒業。在学中の2005年からインターンとしてジェイ・シードで事業立ち上げやマーケティング業務に携わる。2008年から株式会社トラフィックゲート(現リンクシェア・ジャパン株式会社)にてアドネットワーク事業やアプリプロデュースを経験後に起業。タクシー配車アプリの日本法人HAILO株式会社代表取締役社長、バケーションレンタル事業HomeAway日本支社長、マッチングアプリTinder日本支社長、投資ファンドEast VenturesのPrincipalを経て、2022年グローバル投資ファンドAntlerのパートナーに就任。

Jul 31, 202325:34
#84: Geopolitics and Pakistan's Economy - What Investors Should Consider with Zayn Venture Capital's Faisal Aftab

#84: Geopolitics and Pakistan's Economy - What Investors Should Consider with Zayn Venture Capital's Faisal Aftab

Faisal is a Pakistani-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the Founder & General Partner of Zayn Venture Capital (Formally Zayn Capital), a leading US & Cayman domiciled venture capital fund, investing in early-stage tech ventures in Pakistan. He is considered to be one of the most prolific investors with the most number of notable investment calls in Pakistan. His track record includes: Haball, NayaPay, PostEX, Bookme.pk, Abhi Finance, AdalFi, Bazaar-tech, KTrade, SnappRetail, Laam.pk,Krave Mart, GrocerApp, Truck It In, Savyour, Roomy.pk, Bagallery, Trellis Housing Finance, Tazah, Zaraye and Colabs.Faisal was also a founding partner of Lakson Venture Capital before creating Zayn VC. He built the Lakson Fund from the ground up as Managing Partner and Executive Director, attaining one the highest TVPIs in Pakistan in just 3 years. Along with his early notable investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum, his substantial expertise in venture capital and private investing has given him a thorough grasp of blockchain technology and global macroeconomics, which he applies to his investment decisions.Faisal has an MBA from Oxford University, joint Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Michigan State University USA. He has also been an investor in Hedge Funds, Venture Capital Funds and an active Angel Investor for over 15 years. Faisal is a limited partner of the Silicon Valley-based Venture Capital Fund 500 Startups.


  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faisal-aftab-93a8b3129/
Jul 17, 202327:40
#83: The Materials Revolution, Corporate Venturing, and the Double Bottom Line with Zeon Ventures' Dennis Clark

#83: The Materials Revolution, Corporate Venturing, and the Double Bottom Line with Zeon Ventures' Dennis Clark

Dennis currently serves as Investment Director at Zeon Ventures, a newly-formed, early stage venture capital firm investing across materials, sustainability, climate and health. Zeon Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Zeon Corporation, a global leader in elastomers, polymers, and specialty chemicals.

Prior to joining Zeon, Dennis was at Honda for close to a decade spearheading the company's corporate venturing and open innovation activities. While at Honda, Dennis co-founded Honda Xcelerator, one of the first mobility-focused corporate accelerator programs and led these activities on a global scale. Under his direction, Honda's open innovation and venturing activities generated 40+ startup collaborations, numerous strategic investments, one acquisition, and a solid pipeline of deployments in consumer mobility products. Before joining Honda, Dennis worked at DEFTA Partners, a boutique venture capital firm, building bridges between technology upstarts in Silicon Valley and multinational corporations in Asia.

Earlier in his career, Dennis spent eight years in Japan working in a variety of sectors including banking and international civil service. While in Japan, he was awarded a Monbusho Scholarship to research social innovation and received his Master's Degree in Development Economics.

Jun 20, 202321:16
#82: Venturing into China - Insights from a Global Investor on Investment Strategies, Geopolitical Landscape, and Cross-Cultural Challenges with MSA Capital's Ben Harburg

#82: Venturing into China - Insights from a Global Investor on Investment Strategies, Geopolitical Landscape, and Cross-Cultural Challenges with MSA Capital's Ben Harburg

Ben Harburg is a Managing Partner at MSA Capital, a global investment firm with over $2 billion in assets under management. Mr Harburg also leads MSA Novo, the emerging markets focused franchise of MSA. Ben has significant investment and operations experience in the Greater China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. He sits on Boards of Directors of various private and public companies, as well as those of foundations such as the National Committee on US China Relations, the Asian Cultural Council, and the Carnegie Endowment’s China Center. He was a Neubauer Scholar at Tufts University (where he studied International Relations), a Fulbright Scholar at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (where he was based in the Department of Islamic Sciences and Oriental Philology), and the first native born American admitted to Tsinghua University Peoples Bank of China School of Finance elite EMBA program. His passion is football and he is a co-owner of Cádiz Club de Fútbol, a team playing in Spain’s First Division (La Liga).

    • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-harburg/
    • Website: https://benharburg.com/
May 22, 202359:26
#81: Overvalued Web 3.0 Startup Multiples & VC Micro-Betting with Lightning Ventures' Mike Jarmuz

#81: Overvalued Web 3.0 Startup Multiples & VC Micro-Betting with Lightning Ventures' Mike Jarmuz

Mike Jarmuz… or Muzz…  is a General Partner at Lightning⚡️Ventures and is focused on investing in Bitcoin companies. His goal is to evangelize and demystify early-stage investing to plebs and whales alike. He is super passionate about educating founders and operators on strategies to fund their projects and believes everyone should invest in technology companies (not just the suits) and that investing in Bitcoin companies is possibly the best thing someone can do to complement their HODL position.

Mike is a lifelong entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in a broad range of industries. Lover of all small businesses! He has personally owned a retail clothing store, flower shop, bar, cafe, and, music venue. He also has related experience in healthcare technology, event management, ticketing, nightlife, venue/theatre operations, talent buying, concert & music production, sound engineering, lighting design, catering, travel, tour management, e-commerce, screen-printing, merchandising, real estate, transportation, grassroots marketing, personal finance, marketing, and business consulting.


  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-jarmuz-573b5658/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeJarmuz
  • Website: https://vida.page/mikejarmuz
Mar 13, 202330:25
#80: Shifting from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 & Venture Building with Spartan Labs' Shaun Heng

#80: Shifting from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 & Venture Building with Spartan Labs' Shaun Heng

Former investment banker (@ SCB) turned CorpDev (@ RedMart - acq) turned founder & CEO (@ Eatsy) and VP, Growth & Ops (@ CoinMarketCap - acq). Shaun most recently led Spartan Labs, a $100M Web3 venture-building studio. He is excited about solving growth and strategy challenges while building high-performing teams. He has operated through almost every stage: from founding, seed, series A all the way through acquisition - from idea to tens of millions in revenue. Furthermore, Shaun is an angel investor and advisor, focused on Web3, NFT, blockchain gaming, crypto, defi, marketplaces, fintech and B2B SaaS.

Follow him for more regular updates on his journey in Web3:

  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/shaunhengcj
  • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunheng/


Feb 20, 202327:36
#79: Web 3.0, AI, & Deep Science Investing with Vibe Capital's Tim Ryan and Dave Goldblatt

#79: Web 3.0, AI, & Deep Science Investing with Vibe Capital's Tim Ryan and Dave Goldblatt

Dave joined Facebook in 2007, and worked on Product and Operations at Facebook until 2017. While there, he learned from world class builders, thinkers, and operators how to scale technologies and businesses to billions of users.More recently, he was the CEO of Wavechat, a social audio company. After Wavechat, he was a fellow in the On Deck Angel Investing and On Deck Investing fellowships, where he refined his skills in the public and private markets.

  • Website: https://davegoldblatt.com/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-goldblatt-40138129/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/davegoldblatt

Timothy Ryan is an experienced entrepreneur and angel investor. He most recently was a GP, leading a seed stage Venture Capital fund through AngelList called MLC Ventures, that focused on bringing seed capital to tech founders.He was also responsible for negotiating term sheets with founders and other co-investors that ranged from $100k - $500k+, securing equity for $20M+ valuations.Prior to that his experience as a founder was established with product creation, operations, and go-to-market launches.He founded a health tech startup that was acquired, and was involved in Web3 / cryptography working with Ledger & Trezor and helped to launch an exchange called DCEX that was funded by Ripple Labs.He was also one of the founding team members for Zepp Labs, a sports wearable startup that achieved a peak of $15M ARR, and raised over $40M+ in VC funding.Timothy graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from San Francisco State University and an MBA in Global Finance from IAE Nice in France.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tpr11/
Jan 15, 202343:55
#78: 6x Startup Founder (Binance Acquisiton, YC W17 Soomgo) & Building a Team from 0-1 with Antler Korea's Jiho Kang

#78: 6x Startup Founder (Binance Acquisiton, YC W17 Soomgo) & Building a Team from 0-1 with Antler Korea's Jiho Kang

Jiho built his career working with South Korean tech giant SK Planet and ecommerce unicorn Coupang as lead product manager. Jiho is also well connected to Silicon Valley becoming the first Korean to be accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator program in 2010 and went on to co-found Soomgo, a Y-Combinator portfolio company(#153 of top YC portfolio companies) recently valued at over $500m. Jiho’s most recent venture was blockchain startup BxB which was acquired by the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange; Binance in 2020.

  • Website: http://jiho.co
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibreakshit/

 

Dec 18, 202255:43
#77: DAO's, Token Valuations, & Crypto Ponzy Schemes with Newman Capital's Adrian Lai

#77: DAO's, Token Valuations, & Crypto Ponzy Schemes with Newman Capital's Adrian Lai

Adrian Lai is the founder of Newman Capital, a principal investment firm focused on private equity and venture capital investment with significant presence in Web3. Newman is an investor in influential companies such as Reddit, Epic Games, SpaceX, Dapper Labs & Kraken. It has also invested in Web3 funds such as Bitkraft, Shima Capital, Republic and Metaweb. Newman is also actively investing in early-stage Web3 startups with 20+ portfolios. Adrian previously served as the co-founder of Liquefy, an institutional blockchain solution with presence in Hong Kong & The Middle East. Adrian began his career at BlackRock with experience in Sales & Marketing, Fintech & ESG Investment. He worked with chairpersons and board members from 100+ listed companies across Asia on corporate governance, corporate actions, cybersecurity, and climate change risk. Adrian was a Columnist at SCMP on blockchain technology and a commentator for Wall Street Journal & CNN.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-lai/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/melo151962
Nov 28, 202229:33
#76: Developer Productivity & Technical Challenges in Machine Learning with Bain Capital Ventures' Rak Garg

#76: Developer Productivity & Technical Challenges in Machine Learning with Bain Capital Ventures' Rak Garg

Rak is a Principal at Bain Capital Ventures, which manages over $6b and was an early investor in companies like LinkedIn, Docusign, Docker, and Redis Labs. Rak leads early-stage investments in cybersecurity and developer infrastructure companies. Before investing, he was a product manager at Atlassian, where he led the identity management tool Atlassian Access.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rakgarg/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rak_garg
Nov 07, 202231:04
#75: Overvalued Crypto Startup Multiples & Web 3.0 Developer Talent with EVG's Allen Ng

#75: Overvalued Crypto Startup Multiples & Web 3.0 Developer Talent with EVG's Allen Ng

Venture veteran turned crypto enthusiast, Allen has participated in the making of over a dozen renowned TMT unicorns, start-ups and blockchain projects across the globe since 2012 and is an investor in 50+ startups globally, including a dozen unicorns till date. As a VC, he has invested $100m across frontier technologies, ranging from autonomous driving, health-tech, fin-tech to blockchain. As an operator, he has co-founded, scaled, spun-off, merged, sold multiple award-winning companies. As an advisor, he has helped multiple start-ups to secure investment, M&A and partnership. Allen holds a B.B.A in CUHK.

Now the Co-founder & CEO of web venture studio Everest Ventures Group (EVG), Allen was is an early investor & advisor to metaverse unicorns Animoca, Dapper Labs, Immutable, The Sandbox, and many more. 

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenngg/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/realAllenNg
Oct 09, 202237:29
#74: Engineering Radical Transparency & Decision-making Best Practices with Meetup's David Siegel
Sep 19, 202238:14
#73: Second Home Co-Ownership with Pacaso's Austin Allison

#73: Second Home Co-Ownership with Pacaso's Austin Allison

Austin is CEO of Pacaso and co-founded the company to make the dream of second home ownership a reality for more people after experiencing the profound effect it had on his own life. Pacaso is Austin’s second startup. In 2009, he founded dotloop in his hometown of Cincinnati, a company that created software to seamlessly manage real estate transactions. Zillow acquired dotloop in 2015, and Austin continued to run dotloop as a Zillow executive until 2018. Austin started selling real estate at the age of 18 and worked in residential and commercial real estate for a decade. Austin enjoys running, mountain biking and flying. He lives in Napa, CA with his wife Angela and their son.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinallison/
Aug 28, 202229:44
#72: Trusted, Verified, & Connected Documents on the Blockchain with Dedoco's Daphne Ng

#72: Trusted, Verified, & Connected Documents on the Blockchain with Dedoco's Daphne Ng

Daphne is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dedoco– a Digital Document Management-as-a-Service that focuses on protecting data privacy and document security for companies, leveraging on blockchain technology.

Set up in 2020, Dedocois now transacting thousands of documents every month across Government, Banks, FIs, Professional Services, Real Estate, Tech platforms. The company is also ISO-certified and IMDA-accredited for Singapore government procurement. Globally, they have offices and teams in US, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

On the thought leadership front, Daphne is a regular speaker and advisor on the applications of blockchain for enterprise cloud and solutioning. In 2021, she was listed on SG100 Women in Tech and other previous accolades including was #3 in Top 10 Women in Fintech (APAC), Top 100 Women in Fintech 2019-2020, and honouree at the Spirit of Enterprise (SOE) Award 2019. Currently, she is a Professional Council Member of Global Fintech Institute; and also sits on the Board of SGTechas its Lead for Web3/Blockchain Workgroup.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daphne-ng-dedoco/
Aug 07, 202226:15
#71: The Crypto-Asset Broker of the Future with Nomura's Olivier Dang

#71: The Crypto-Asset Broker of the Future with Nomura's Olivier Dang

Olivier Dang is the Global Chief Operating Officer for the Wholesale Digital Office of Nomura. He supports the development and implementation of the digital strategy of Nomura’s Wholesale business. Olivier has been at Nomura since 2010 and held various roles in Corporate Strategy and Business Management. 

Prior to this, he was a Management Consultant at McKinsey in London and he started his career as an entrepreneur building a mobile internet company in France. He holds a MSc in Telecommunications from Chalmers University of Technology, an engineering degree from the Institut Superieur d’Electronique de Paris and a M.B.A. from the London Business School. Olivier is based in Zurich.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivier-dang/
Jul 24, 202216:56
#70: The Future of the Crypto Economy in Southeast Asia with Coinbase's Hassan Ahmed

#70: The Future of the Crypto Economy in Southeast Asia with Coinbase's Hassan Ahmed

Hassan Ahmed is an experienced operator and investor in web3 and fintech. He is currently the Regional Director of Southeast Asia at Coinbase, the largest crypto platform in theworld. Prior to this, Hassan served a dual role at GoTo Group as Chief Executive Officer of Coins.ph, the leading crypto brokerage in the Philippines, and Head of Strategy for Gopay in Indonesia.

Prior to moving to Singapore, Hassan was based in New York as Director of Finance & Operations at eToro USA, where he was responsible for the launch of their regulated virtual currency social trading platform in the US. He also served as Head of Business Operations at Venmo and Vice President of Strategy at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in prior roles.

Hassan obtained his Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassanahmed3/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/hassan_ny
Jul 03, 202246:42
#69: SoftBank Group Operator School with Laura Gaviria Halaby, Operating Lead SoftBank Latin America Funds

#69: SoftBank Group Operator School with Laura Gaviria Halaby, Operating Lead SoftBank Latin America Funds

Laura Gaviria Halaby is a scale-up and business development expert with entrepreneurial background and ample experience in leadership roles in venture capital and tech.

Her current role as Operating Lead for the US$8 billion SoftBank Latin America Funds focuses on delivering operation support to the portfolio companies to accelerate their growth.

She also leads scalable knowledge programs for SoftBank such as the SoftBank Group Operator School (SBOS), which has upskilled over 8000 professionals in over 50 countries around the world. Internally SBOS for Founders and Leaders bring industry experts to share best practices on how to solve needle moving challenges on areas such as Strategy, People, Marketing, Web3, Cybersecurity, among others.

Laura is also a member of the Fintech / Crypto Action Board for the City of Miami; is an investor and active mentor for early and growth stage startups and serves in the Board of Banco Sol in Bolivia.

Prior to joining SoftBank, she was the Global Head of Fintech Acceleration for Citibank where she accelerated the implementation and launch of new digital products. Leading programs included Citi Mobile Challenge, Citi Tech for Integrity Challenge and Data Science Challenge. Her work at Citi gave her exposure to global fintech landscape working across Asia, EMEA and LatAm.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lgh/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lalisgaviria
Jun 13, 202235:05
#68: Winning Customers' Hearts through Big Data Realization with Google's Chief Measurement Strategist Neil Hoyne

#68: Winning Customers' Hearts through Big Data Realization with Google's Chief Measurement Strategist Neil Hoyne

Neil has served as an analyst, researcher, inventor, lecturer and, in his words, the father of many forgettable slides of glossy funnels and Venn diagrams. A witness to and participant in billion-dollar successes, and instructive failures, all in the pursuit of building indestructible customer relationships through digital media. A key player in the executive rallying cry to be more “data driven.”

As Google’s Chief Measurement Strategist, Neil has had the privilege to lead more than 2,500 engagements with the world’s biggest advertisers. His efforts have helped these companies acquire millions of customers, improve conversion rates by more than 400 percent and generate billions in incremental revenue. Immensely proud of the degrees he’s earned from Purdue University and UCLA, Neil returned to academia in 2018 as a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His first book, Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts was published in 2022 by Penguin Random House.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilhoyne/
May 01, 202235:30
#67: The New Era of the Creator Economy with Bemyfriends' Steve Seo

#67: The New Era of the Creator Economy with Bemyfriends' Steve Seo

Over the last few years, bemyfriends co-CEO Steve Seo has established himself as one of the leading authorities in the global fandom business.

A serial entrepreneur, Seo joined bemyfriends in January of 2022 after serving as the CEO of beNX (now known as Weverse Company) and as a technical advisor for HYBE Corporation. It was in those roles that Seo oversaw the launches of Weverse, the official fan community of K-pop supergroup BTS, and its e-commerce platform, Weverse Shop. The platform that Seo developed led to cross-border e-commerce in 220 countries.

After contributing greatly to the globalization of the music fan economy, Seo is ready to help creators around the world strengthen their fanbase and earn more from their content. Drawing from his extensive expertise, Seo will help bemyfriends lead the global creator economy by shaping its business strategy and overseeing the global expansion of its new bespoke platform builder, b.stage.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wooseokseo/


Apr 11, 202214:23
#66: Vietnam's Future of Home Ownership & iBuyers with Homebase's Phillip An

#66: Vietnam's Future of Home Ownership & iBuyers with Homebase's Phillip An

Phillip An is the Co-founder and COO of Homebase, one of Southeast Asia’s leading Proptech companies. Homebase (www.homebase.com.vn) provides revolutionary products made accessible that empower homeowners to buy, sell, and own homes in ways that work best for themselves. Homebase is backed by leading investors and partners around the world (YC, Goodwater Capital, Partech Ventures, etc), with the most recent $30M round of equity and debt funding announced in 2021.

Prior to starting Homebase, Phillip has w had experiences across Investment banking at Goldman Sachs, Management Consulting at McKinsey and in Venture Capital. He holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Caltech, and was admitted to the MBA program at Harvard Business School.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipan/
  • Website: https://www.homebase.com.vn/
Mar 20, 202224:51
#65: High-Impact Entrepreneurship through Underserved Markets with Endeavor's Adrian Garcia-Aranyos

#65: High-Impact Entrepreneurship through Underserved Markets with Endeavor's Adrian Garcia-Aranyos

Adrian Garcia-Aranyos is the President of Endeavor, a global community of high-impact entrepreneurs present in ~40 markets with a rules-based venture arm, Endeavor Catalyst, which is a leading VC investor in most emerging markets. he joined Endeavor in 2014 as Founding Managing Director of Endeavor Spain. Prior to that he held several executive roles at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co; The Economist Newspaper Group; and CM Capital Markets in Madrid.

Since 2004, Mr. Garcia-Aranyos serves as board member at Thune Eureka, an industrial engineering firm specializing in capital goods and focused on deep-sea energy components, paper industry parts and defense mechanisms. Additionally he is also an advisor at Bankuish, Cermer, Creditas, CodeOp, Founder Nest, Legal Army, Microwd, and Valiu, among others.

He obtained his BA in Political Science from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has an MA in Trade & Commerce from CECO-ICEX. Plus a series of certificates from IEB, Kellogg, IESE & Harvard.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-garcia-aranyos-32871b3/


Feb 28, 202220:19
#64: AI Enabled Technologies & Economic Equity with Fika Ventures' Eva Ho
Feb 06, 202236:34
#63: How to Start a Fund with Investment Fund Secrets' Bridger Pennington
Jan 09, 202245:06
#62: The Future of Blockchain Convergence with Kenetic Capital's Jehan Chu

#62: The Future of Blockchain Convergence with Kenetic Capital's Jehan Chu

Jehan Chu is co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kenetic, a blockchain Venture Capital and cryptocurrency trading firm based in Hong Kong. A former front-end developer, he started investing in cryptocurrency in 2013 and has invested and supported over 100 projects. Jehan founded the Ethereum HK community (2014), co-Founded the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong (2014) and founded the Hyperledger HK community (2016).

Jehan serves as co-Chairman of the Hong Kong Fintech Association Blockchain Committee, is enrolled in the Kauffman Fellows Program, is a Fellow of the Singapore University of Social Science and member of the Global Patrons Board of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He also sits on the Board of Para Site Art Space and is co-Founder and Board member of Social Alpha Foundation, a blockchain/social impact non-profit. Jehan holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and MA from Hong Kong University.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehanchu/
Dec 19, 202133:56
#61: Game Studio Venture Investing with Execution Labs' Jason Della Rocca

#61: Game Studio Venture Investing with Execution Labs' Jason Della Rocca

Jason Della Rocca is a game industry entrepreneur, funding advisor, and cluster expert. He specializes in business/partnership development, pitching/funding, and ecosystem/cluster development. As the co-founder of Executions Labs, he was a hands-on early stage investor to over 20 independent game studios from North America and Europe. Between 2000-09 he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), and was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Conference. In 2009, Jason was named to Game Developer Magazine’s “Power50,” a list which profiles 50 of the most important contributors to the state of the game industry. As a sought after expert on the game industry, Jason has lectured at conferences and universities worldwide.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasondellarocca/
Nov 28, 202132:35
#60: Negotiating an Acquisition Deal & Acqui-hiring with Lyft Media's Kenan Saleh & Faizan Bhatty

#60: Negotiating an Acquisition Deal & Acqui-hiring with Lyft Media's Kenan Saleh & Faizan Bhatty

<ul>
<li>Faizan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faizanbhatty/</li>
<li>Kenan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenansaleh/</li>
</ul>
Nov 09, 202123:59
#59: Corporate Venturing & Open Innovation with Honda Innovations' Dennis Clark

#59: Corporate Venturing & Open Innovation with Honda Innovations' Dennis Clark

As the Managing Director of Strategic Venture Partnerships at Honda Innovations, Dennis leads Honda’s global open innovation initiatives and strategic partnerships with startups. Before joining Honda, he worked in early-stage venture capital building bridges between technology upstarts in Silicon Valley and multinational corporations. Early in his career, he spent eight years in Japan working in a variety of sectors including banking and international civil service.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisclarkjr/
  • Auto News: https://www.autonews.com/commentary/next-step-mobility-startups
Oct 09, 202128:21
#58: The Anti-Pitch Playbook & Successful Post-Investment Traits with 1517's Danielle Strachman
Sep 19, 202150:41
#57: Institutional Bitcoin Investing, SPAC's, & Life Advice with SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci

#57: Institutional Bitcoin Investing, SPAC's, & Life Advice with SkyBridge Capital's Anthony Scaramucci

Anthony Scaramucci is the Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital. He is the author of four books: The Little Book of Hedge Funds, Goodbye Gordon Gekko, Hopping Over the Rabbit Hole (a 2016 Wall Street Journal best seller), and Trump: The Blue-Collar President.

Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman, LLC in 2001. Earlier, he was a vice president in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs & Co.

In 2016, Scaramucci was ranked #85 in Worth Magazine’s Power 100: The 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. In 2011, he received Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year – New York” Award in the Financial Services category. Anthony is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), vice chair of the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund Board, a board member of both The Brain Tumor Foundation and Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and a Trustee of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation. He was a member of the New York City Financial Services Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2012.

In November 2016, he was named to President-Elect Trump’s 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee. In June 2017, he was named the Chief Strategy Officer of the EXIM Bank. He served as the White House Communications Director for a period in July 2017.

Scaramucci, a native of Long Island, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anscaramucci/
  • Website: https://www.skybridge.com/
Aug 29, 202128:08
#05: The MikoBits Show: Synthetix DeFi Derivatives with Kain Warwick

#05: The MikoBits Show: Synthetix DeFi Derivatives with Kain Warwick

Miko is a General Partner with Gumi Ventures, a US $30M investment fund focused early stage blockchain startups and a cofounder of crypto exchange Evercoin.

Miko ignited his passion for open source software 25 years ago as chief Evangelist for the Java Language and Platform at Sun Microsystems. Since then he has been building open source software startups in Silicon Valley including raising over $50 million in venture capital for developer platform companies such as Gradle and financial infrastructure companies like Hazelcast and has participated in multiple exits including INFRAVIO, webMethods, and Db4O. He is an advisor in successful startups like Celsius (CeFi Lending), Idle Finance (DeFi Yield Aggregator), Pundi X (Payments), and KEYLESS (ID infrastructure). He has been an investor with Focus Ventures, a firm with over $800M under management, 9 IPOs and 44 exits and blockchain firm Pantera Capital. He holds an Master’s degree in Neuroscience from Yale University where he worked on abstract computational neural networks. Miko’s mission is to promote increased transparency, equality, inclusion, innovation and lower cost financial infrastructure through open source.

  • Website: https://www.mikobits.com
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikoBits
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikomatsumura/
Aug 23, 202149:01
#56: Raising a Venture Capital Fund with Tenacity Venture Capital's Ben Narasin

#56: Raising a Venture Capital Fund with Tenacity Venture Capital's Ben Narasin

Ben Narasin is the Founder and General Partner of Tenacity Venture Capital, a pre-Series A venture fund. Immediately previously, Narasin wes a full time investor and Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the worlds largest and oldest traditional venture firms. A prolific entrepreneur and highly regarded early-stage investor with three decades of company-building expertise, Narasin has focused on emerging technologies and new markets throughout his investment career. With a portfolio comprising key early successes in some of today’s fastest growing sectors, such as fintech, digital marketplaces, mobile and connected devices. His overarching focus in seeking new investments is, in his words, “to find founders whho make me say wow.”

Narasin is a 25-year entrepreneur and 10-year early-stage investor. His knack for spotting emerging trends led him to make seed investments in companies like Dropcam, Lending Club, TellApart, Kabbage and Zenefits. Before NEA, Narasin served as a General Partner at Canvas Ventures, and was prior to that was President of TriplePoint Ventures, the equity arm of TriplePoint Capital, where he oversaw the firm’s seed funding investment activities.

Narasin’s path to investing is rooted in entrepreneurship. He founded several consumer companies before launching his investing career, including Fashionmall.com, one of the first e-commerce companies, which he founded in 1993 and led to a successful IPO in 1999. Narasin frequently writes and speaks about technology and investing, as well as food and wine, a lifelong passion. He holds a B.A. in Entrepreneurial Studies from Babson College.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennarasin/
  • Website: https://pitch-ben.com/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/BNarasin
Aug 15, 202132:30
#55: The Digital Operating System for Southeast Asian MSME's with Zaapi's Wilfried Buiron

#55: The Digital Operating System for Southeast Asian MSME's with Zaapi's Wilfried Buiron

A Tsinghua University Schwarzman Scholar and Masa Son fellow, Wilfried Buiron is the Founder & CEO of Singapore-based, Zaapi an ecommerce enablement startup backed by Flash Ventures aiming to democratize access to ecommerce for Southeast Asian MSMEs. Prior to founding Zaapi, Wilfried spent time at McKinsey & Company and multiple Chinese startups and founded a successful D2C watch brand, Atelier Wen between Beijing and Hong Kong.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilfried-buiron/
  • Website: https://www.zaapi.com/
Jul 31, 202134:46
#54: The Payment Giant of Southeast Asia & Organizational Design with Xendit's Moses Lo

#54: The Payment Giant of Southeast Asia & Organizational Design with Xendit's Moses Lo

Moses Lo is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Xendit, a financial technology company that he alongside others started in 2015. Moses' leadership has led Xendit to prestigious awards such as the CNBC Upstart 100 and The Best Payments Initiative by The Asian Banker in 2018. With Asia's Forbes 30 under 30 in his pocket, it is without a doubt that we will be seeing Xendit slowly transform the payments industry under his leadership.

Moses earned his bachelor’s degree from University of New South Wales, Sydney majoring in finance & information systems management. Then, he kick started his career as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group before obtaining his MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. During his studies, he briefly experience working at Amazon as a retail business development.

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, Moses has always had a dream of starting his own business and building an organization that has a massive positive impact. At Xendit, Moses believes that together he could contribute to building Indonesia’s digital infrastructure by

providing the best payment solutions in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moseslo/


Jul 18, 202138:38
#53: The Mythical Man-Month Theory & Ephemeral Environments with Layer CI's Colin Chartier

#53: The Mythical Man-Month Theory & Ephemeral Environments with Layer CI's Colin Chartier

Colin is Co-founder and CEO at LayerCI, a company which helps software developers efficiently review changes to websites. He graduated with a triple major (math, stats, computer science) from the University of Toronto and has worked as a tech executive for five years.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinchartier/
  • Website: https://layerci.com/
Jul 05, 202123:26
#52: The Fund that is Investing in the Plaid, Stripe and Klarna of Southeast Asia with 1982's Herston Elton Powers

#52: The Fund that is Investing in the Plaid, Stripe and Klarna of Southeast Asia with 1982's Herston Elton Powers

Herston is a Managing Partner of 1982 Ventures – the leading seed fund focused on fintech in Southeast Asia. He is responsible for setting the strategy and direction of 1982 Ventures. He is active in investments, portfolio management and investor relations. He has sourced and led investments into Brick, Fundiin, Homebase, Go Zayaan and Wagely.

Prior to founding 1982 Ventures, he was a Principal at tryb Group in Singapore and created and executed their early stage investment strategy. He led investments into Alami, a leading Indonesian Islamic Finance Platform, Gradana, a pioneer in Proptech in Indonesia and managed the investment into Maria Health, a Philippines-based insurtech. Additionally, Herston managed tryb’s growth equity investment (Chinsay) which led to new senior management team based in Singapore and strengthening of the firm’s Singapore presence. He previously held board observer roles at Alami and Gradana.

Before entering the private equity and venture capital industry, Herston was a Banker at The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) with nearly a decade of global financial services experience. As the Head of Southeast Asia based in Singapore, he executed the first single-listed U.S. ADR listing (NASDAQ) from Southeast Asia and has led numerous deals throughout Asia-Pacific.

He spent 5 years in Hong Kong covering the Asia-Pacific market, including Korea, and built their advisory platform for Asian clients. He has advised unlisted, pre-IPO and listed companies on U.S. capital markets, investor relations and market access. He has extensive experience in supporting tech companies and their advisors with respect to strategy, IPOs and US listings. He also co-founded a global fintech company (Closir) which connects institutional investors to emerging markets.

Herston began his career in New York where he focused on connecting international companies with institutional investors, advisory and macro-economic research.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herston/
  • Website: https://1982.vc/
Jun 21, 202123:04
#51: Venture Building in Latin America with Polymath Ventures' Wenyi Cai

#51: Venture Building in Latin America with Polymath Ventures' Wenyi Cai

Graduated Cum Laude from Harvard College, Wenyi Cai is the Founder & CEO of Polymath Ventures, a company builder that serves the underserved middle-class of Latin America. Prior to founding Polymath she helped build a quantitative trading hedge fund, was a published researcher in applied physics, worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company, and was the COO of Milo.com in Silicon Valley, a consumer internet startup that sold to eBay in 2010. Since 2012 Wenyi has been focused on building the Polymath platform and co-founding 10 ventures that have raised over 40M USD.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenyi-cai-5a99876/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/wenyi_cai?lang=en
  • Website: https://polymathv.com/
  • Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE9zw-FF_6k&feature=emb_logo


Jun 07, 202149:30
#04: The MikoBits Show: Simply Earn Interest on Crypto with Celsius's Alex Mashinsky

#04: The MikoBits Show: Simply Earn Interest on Crypto with Celsius's Alex Mashinsky

Miko is a General Partner with Gumi Ventures, a US $30M investment fund focused early stage blockchain startups and a cofounder of crypto exchange Evercoin.

Miko ignited his passion for open source software 25 years ago as chief Evangelist for the Java Language and Platform at Sun Microsystems. Since then he has been building open source software startups in Silicon Valley including raising over $50 million in venture capital for developer platform companies such as Gradle and financial infrastructure companies like Hazelcast and has participated in multiple exits including INFRAVIO, webMethods, and Db4O. He is an advisor in successful startups like Celsius (CeFi Lending), Idle Finance (DeFi Yield Aggregator), Pundi X (Payments), and KEYLESS (ID infrastructure). He has been an investor with Focus Ventures, a firm with over $800M under management, 9 IPOs and 44 exits and blockchain firm Pantera Capital. He holds an Master’s degree in Neuroscience from Yale University where he worked on abstract computational neural networks. Miko’s mission is to promote increased transparency, equality, inclusion, innovation and lower cost financial infrastructure through open source.

  • Website: https://www.mikobits.com
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikoBits
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikomatsumura/
Jun 02, 202131:45
#50: Starting a VC Fund, a Contrarian View, & Immigrant Founders with Leonis Capital's Jay Zhao

#50: Starting a VC Fund, a Contrarian View, & Immigrant Founders with Leonis Capital's Jay Zhao

Jay is a managing partner at Leonis Capital, an early stage venture capital fund that invests in AI-first companies and the automation economy. Previously, Jay is a Partner at T Fund (fka TCL Ventures), a global CVC arm by TCL Corp, one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. Jay is also responsible for helping define TCL’s strategic roadmap as well as corporate's M&A and partnerships. Prior to that, Jay was a Senior Director / Partner at Walden Venture Capital, one of the pioneer venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, with a global presence in Asia and Israel. Prior to Walden, Jay was a Principal at Granite Ventures (ex- H&Q venture group), a premier San Francisco based VC firm that manages over $1 billion AUM.

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayzhaolinkedin/
  • Newsletter: https://nexttrillion.substack.com/
  • Website: https://www.leoniscap.com/
May 17, 202144:42
#03: The MikoBits Show: The Graph Protocol Decentralized Blockchain Data Query with Tegan Kline

#03: The MikoBits Show: The Graph Protocol Decentralized Blockchain Data Query with Tegan Kline

Miko is a General Partner with Gumi Ventures, a US $30M investment fund focused early stage blockchain startups and a cofounder of crypto exchange Evercoin.

Miko ignited his passion for open source software 25 years ago as chief Evangelist for the Java Language and Platform at Sun Microsystems. Since then he has been building open source software startups in Silicon Valley including raising over $50 million in venture capital for developer platform companies such as Gradle and financial infrastructure companies like Hazelcast and has participated in multiple exits including INFRAVIO, webMethods, and Db4O. He is an advisor in successful startups like Celsius (CeFi Lending), Idle Finance (DeFi Yield Aggregator), Pundi X (Payments), and KEYLESS (ID infrastructure). He has been an investor with Focus Ventures, a firm with over $800M under management, 9 IPOs and 44 exits and blockchain firm Pantera Capital. He holds an Master’s degree in Neuroscience from Yale University where he worked on abstract computational neural networks. Miko’s mission is to promote increased transparency, equality, inclusion, innovation and lower cost financial infrastructure through open source.

  • Website: https://www.mikobits.com
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikoBits
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikomatsumura/
May 05, 202134:52
#49: Diving into Wall Street & 95+ Hour Work Weeks with WSO's Patrick Curtis
May 03, 202132:05
#48: The Wapistani Effect & Domiciled Funds with Sarmayacar's Rabeel Warraich
Apr 19, 202136:30