Virtuosity : Recent Episodes
Neil Feldman
Interviewing business leaders of all kinds like venture capitalists, startup founders, media companies, and more to share industry insights and cover emerging companies.
I interviewed Curtis Plot Mak, Chief Business Officer at Bloxroute Labs. Bloxroute Labs is a next generation DeFi infrastructure company improving trading speeds and performance with huge applications for retail and enterprise users.
Bloxroute has raised $70 million Series B funding including many top investors like SoftBank, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Lightspeed, Coinbase Ventures just to name a few.
00:00-00:18: Intro
0:19-1:52: Overview of bloxroute labs & blockchain distribution networks
1:52-5:38: Digging into User Flows: Bloxroute as a Layer Zero protocol, Interaction between memool data & bloxroute’s gateway, 5G network, Algorithmic DeFi trading,
5:38-7:01: Bloxroute & non-competitive DeFi trading: Bloxroute’s value proposition for L1s, L2s, validators, blockbuilders, DEXs, wallets, aggregators, bridges, infrastructure providers, retail traders, ect.
7:02- 10:54: Building Bloxroute’s business function from scratch: BD & Marketing, difficulty in ramping crypto native operators, constantly shipping new products,
10:54-17:33: How & why Bloxroute can ship new product features each month: rapidly developing ecosystem demands, quirks of transaction & MEV flows per layer 1 blockchain like Ethereum, custom building a MEV boost system for BNB smart chain, GTM with new crypto products
17:33 - 22:28: Growth in web 3: Is a data driven sales process possible in web 3? What growth KPIs are worth tracking in crypto?
22:28 - 27:25: What does growth look like in web 3 look like in such a highly a volatile environment? Thinking through short term vs long term planning & prioritization
27:25- 33:23 Bloxroute & web 3 gaming: value proposition for GameFi, prioritization, web 3 cloud gaming & creating utility features using transaction ordering
33:23 - End Comparing the 2017-2018 Bitcoin Crash versus the 2022 FTX & Alameda crash, Crypto BD & investing during the Crypto Winter of 2018, 2023 Crypto Winter versus 2018 Winter: Clearly Embedded Usecases
Disclaimer: All investing and/or business is subject to market risk, including the loss of principal. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and there is no guarantee any investment or business strategy will achieve its objectives. This podcast is provided for general and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice or a recommended course of action in any given situation. All opinions and views constitute our judgments as of the date of production and are subject to change at any time without notice. Similarly, all views expressed by individuals are solely their own and do not reflect those of their employers, clients or affiliates.
I interviewed Irene Wu, Head of Strategy & ex-Head of Business Development at LayerZero. Irene is an inspiration to me and many others. Irene is one of the youngest people transforming the web 3 industry, and was only an analyst at a venture capital firm prior to joining LayerZero. Irene joined the company close to day one, and lead all BD efforts up until March 2023 when she transitioned to being the Head of Strategy.
LayerZero is an interoperability blockchain protocol that has has rapidly transformed the crypto value chain across DeFi, gaming, NFTs, and the metaverse, and has raised 270m in total funding from a rolodex of tier 1 VCs & CVCs like A16Z, Sequoia, PayPal Ventures, and Samsung Next just to name a few.
We talk about:
0:00-0:32: Intro
0:32-3:30: Why Irene went from investing in enterprise SaaS to working on blockchain interoperability
3:30-7:14: Irene's analysis of the cross-chain/interoperablity landscape when going all in on Layer Zero on day 1
7:14-10:55: What it was like working on Layer Zero before it became the #1 interoperability protocol
10:55-13:18: Irene's transition from Head of BD to Head of Strategy: Implementing a customer centric approach to business strategy
13:17-18:53: The app-infrastructure adoption cycle in interoperability infrastructure: creating new utility for games building Layer Zero
18:55- End: Thinking through what it looks like to build 10x better experiences for blockchain gaming with Layer Zero
Disclaimer: All investing and/or business is subject to market risk, including the loss of principal. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results and there is no guarantee any investment or business strategy will achieve its objectives. This podcast is provided for general and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice or a recommended course of action in any given situation. All opinions and views constitute our judgments as of the date of production and are subject to change at any time without notice. Similarly, all views expressed by individuals are solely their own and do not reflect those of their employers, clients or affiliates.
I interviewed Stephanie Roulic who's currently Head of Operations @ Goldcast (series A SaaS start-up that's raised a total of 38 million) and the founder of Start-Up Boston.
In August of 2016, Stephanie co-founded a martech company, nDash, and had absolutely no idea she was doing and didn't have a network within the startup community. After discovering that most events were either too salesly or generic to be useful, Stephanie decided to create her own event that would both build a network and answer the questions she had.
About a year later, the first ever Startup Boston Week occurred. This 5-day event brought together 2500 attendees and 125 speakers, over the course of 52 events with legendary speakers like Brian Halligan (Founder & CEO, Hubspot), and Paul Liberman (Founder & COO, DraftKings) just to name a couple.
Fast-forward to 2021 and Startup Boston Week has expanded into the organization Startup Boston, an organization on a mission to showcase the New England startup ecosystem.
We talk about:
0:00-1:02: Intro
1:02-3:46: What were the early days of start-up Boston like?
3:46-6:14: Building a software company at 26 with no prior work experience
6:15-10:12: Building Start-Up Boston: Cold emailing the CEO of Hubspot, and working 14-16 hours per day
10:12-12:50: Cold Outreach Strategy
12:50-16:32:Balancing Start-Up Boston and dNash: outreach cadence
16:32-19:20: Working 16 hours per day: Maintaining Motivation
19:20-21:51: Hacking Getting Started
21:51 - End: When should you cold email your dream speaker/ podcast guest (e.g CEO of Hubspot)?
Disclaimer: Stephanie's views do not necessarily reflect those of Goldcast; she isn't appearing on this podcast in her professional capacity.
I interviewed Matt Tompkins, VP of Space Portfolio @ The Outpost (an advisory and technology accelerator firm that helps companies navigate and succeed in the government space). Matt helped develop the US Airforce’s virtual innovation program called SpaceWERX and specifically focused on the international market by building allied innovation programs
We talk about:
0:00-0:35: Intro
0:35-3:56: What is allied innovation? What are the key differences between allied innovation and traditional innovation (e.g corporate or government)?
3:56-5:54: Challenges in the innovation process: moving defense companies from inception to commercial readiness
5:54-9:54: Where/how can government innovation be aligned with civilian business?
9:54-14:36: Where/how does it make sense to embrace risk in defense innovation? Challenging the status quo in environments with a very low tolerance for failure
14:37-18:13: Bringing together different risk tolerances in private and public sectors
18:13- End: What does interoperability look like in allied innovation?
I interviewed Faris Oweis, former Head of Platform @ Struck Crypto and now coaching and angel investing in web 3 founders at Crypto Coach. Example: Faris is Head of Gaming @ Eclipse Laboratories, a next generation rollup that's raised 15 million in pre-seed and seed funding from Tribe Capital, Tabiya, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Soma Capital, Struck Crypto, CoinList, Polychain, Galileo, Polygon Ventures, Accel, Sreeram Kannan and Ryan Fang. Eclipse's public testnet will go live in 2023 in ecosystems including Celestia, Polygon, and EigenLayer.
We talk about:
0:00-0:22: Intro
0:22-3:17: What are the myths of web 3 GTM? How the winter crystalized focus + best practices for industry conferences
3:17-5:57: Digging deeper into the effects of the winter: Increased focus on growth/BD, shift in narratives(e.g rise of ZK and consumer crypto), and onus on shipping product more than ever
5:57-10:45: Is there a GTM playbook for web 3? Avoiding generalizations, Web 2 v Web 3 Business Models: Customer vs Community, Variation in Throughput, and role of BD, Marketing and other functions in reaching PMF
10:45-13:58: Are there growth KPIs in web 3 like in web 2 (e.g Twitter, Uber)? Web 2 vs Web 3 Metrics, New product use cases driven by industry tailwinds, and growth metrics/goals by stage
13:58: Why UX is improving in web 3: rise of design focused builders, entrance of modular/interoperable blockchains and a constellation of other factors
17:06-19:25: Current State of Institutional Adoption of Web 3: Cryptocurrency versus Building under the Hood
19:58- End: What does 0-1 GTM looks like for a hypothetical web 3 infrastructure company?
I interviewed Brendan Dell who has advised 100+ companies ranging from fortune 500 companies like Panasonic, SAP, and Expedia to venture backed start-ups at YC on defining strategic messaging for their ideal customer, and also runs a top 1% business podcast called $1B tech.
We talk about:
0:00-0:24: Intro
0:24-3:30: How Brendan got started by delivering 50 million of results on an engagement campaign while working in real estate sales
3:30-6:33: Origin of inauthentic/ineffective messaging campaigns
6:33-8:55: Gaining clarity around your ideal customer profile
8:55-10:37: Where/When transformation can occur in the enterprise
10:37-14:28: When to expand into new verticals for growth stage companies: three phases of scaling
14:28-18:20: Balancing emotion with logic in sales: leveraging emotion to move past the status-quo/no-decision
18:20-19:55: Competing with category incumbents: avoiding competition by targeting niche markets
19:55 -End: Returning to rigor in the market
I interviewed Darren Thayre who is currently Head of Innovation on the Global Strategic Initiatives team at Google, and a professor at one of Asia's top business schools. Darren advises a number of CEO's/founders, boards and governments on building new digital growth initiatives, Innovation and Digital Transformation.
As opposed to soley focusing on the technical side of the business, Darren stresses the role of personal transformation by executive teams. In today's podcast, we talk about:
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0:00-0:24: introduction
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0:24-7:50: what it means to become more authentic as a CEO: effectively developing and implementing personal development plans for embarking on transformation - setting, identifying and achieving goals for personal and professional growth, importance of soft skills, & embracing personal and professional growth (8:00)
8:00-13:40: Finding the clarity & humility for personal and professional transformation by leveraging by leveraging outside perspectives and feedback
14:27 - Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable in innovation: Leaning into processes to effectively embrace unconventional thought models while managing risk, & leveraging lean start up principles to effectively launch products at the enterprise by embracing speed and discipline
21:51 - End: diving deep into the lean start up applied to the enterprise:
- enterprise product development versus start up product development: effective and ineffective principles
- how to start applying lean start up methodology in the enterprise by starting small & scaling up leveraging diverse perspectives(29:42- End)
Disclaimer: Darren is only sharing his personal views which do not necessarily reflect those of Google
I interviewed Dustin Wei, formerly Head of BD @ CoinFlip and now strategic advisor + wizard trader. In the last year, Dustin traded 100 million dollars on decentralized exchanges in a year, and is working on new trading tools. Dustin started working on crypto business development in the 10th grade, and got into the space by accident when a teacher sent him to the BitCoin center after forgetting about a pre-planned school trip.
We talk about:
0:00- 0:25: introduction
0:28- 2:24 : what drew Dustin into crypto in 2016 + being forgotten about @ a school trip and getting sent to the NYC Bitcoin Center & meeting Nick Spanos
2:24-3:32: Being mentored by Nick Spanos
3:32-6:32: taking crypto more seriously & getting into CoinFlip
6:32-8:06: life @ CoinFlip and moving into BD
8:17-9:46: Challenges of doing BD at such a young age & ramping up
9:48- end: what’s next for Dustin & an overview of his career as a wizard trader - building new trading tools and how he traded 100 million dollars
I interviewed Leo Lu, Director of Platform at Struck Crypto. For me and many others, Leo is an inspiration. Leo got to where he is today by working on side projects in business development when he discovered he didn’t like his first job in banking. Leveraging the skills he built in his 5-9, Leo eventually became one of the youngest VPs at BNY Mellon.
We talk about:
0:00-0:30: Intro
0:30-3:10: Overview of Leo’s journey
3:10-5:04: How Leo’s side-projects helped him get to where he is today
5:04-7:27: How to think about getting started using Leo as an example
7:27-9:16: How Leo maintained motivation by focusing on developing consistent and repeatable processes like creating content
9:16-end: Leo’s advice for creating content on your side project journey or as a new creator
Leo also put together a website to help others learn more about side projects:
Disclaimer: Leo is only sharing personal views about his career journey which do not necessarily reflect those of Struck Crypto and is not appearing on this podcast in his professional capacity.
I interviewed Damian Chen, Head of Business Development at Drift Protocol about his career journey. Previously, Damian was a corporate lawyer, and made the jump into web 3 by relentlessly networking and writing NFT research reports on Twitter. During his legal career, Damian briefly crossed paths with SBF during a rotation into blockchain regulation as a junior employee.
Drift Protocol is an up-and-coming Solana based derivatives exchange backed by leading crypto investors such as Multicoin Capital, Jump Capital, and QCP. In under 6 months, Drift v1 saw rapid success with more than 15,000 cumulative users and over $10 billion in trading volume.
You can connect with Damian on Twitter @chachangnft
Damian and I talk about:
0:00 – 0:42: Introduction
0:47-2:44: Overview of Damian’s journey from lawyer to Head of Business Development at Drift Protocol
2:44-5:20: Why Damian ended up focusing on writing on NFTs as opposed to trading
5:20-7:02: Why Damian chose to work in trading versus NFTs
7:03- 9:14: What makes entrepreneurship and venture capital so enthralling
9:14-10:54: Damian’s tips for getting started
10:54-12:11: How Damian maintained motivation during his journey
12:38-14:05: Damian’s favorite NFT project & story
14:05-End: What it was like crossing paths with SBF
Disclaimer: Damian is only sharing personal views which do not necessarily reflect those of Drift Protocol & is not appearing on this podcast in his professional capacity.
I interviewed Ethan Austin, founder of Outside VC, former Managing Director of Techstar's Western Union Accelerator, and co-founder of GiveForward. At Outside VC, Ethan invests in fintech and web 3 startups building fintech for the 99% and led by founders who are outsiders of the traditional venture capital ecosystem. At GiveForward, Ethan pioneered the medical crowdfunding industry as co-founder, one of the industry's first crowdfunding platforms. GiveForward raised 7 million from tier 1 VCs, processed 200M on the platform, saved an estimated 10k lives and was acquired in 2017 by GoFundMe.
In this episode, we talk about:
0:00-1:10: intro
1:10- 3:54: user acquisition during bootstrapping
3:54 - 6:38: maintaining motivation after a year of little to no revenue
6:38- 8:30: user acquisition after hitting some scale and raising capital
8:31-10:38: how GiveForward navigated user churn by creating scalable network effects in non traditional networks
10:38- 13:22: the future of fintech: tapping into underserved market segments (e.g Square, and Stripe)
13:22-15:50: managing and thinking through risk profiles in traditionally underserved segments in consumer fintech
15:48 - end: why and how fintech will replace existing financial infrastructure (e.g banking)
I interviewed Billy Samoa Saleebey (award-winning filmmaker and former Tesla Exec) who sits down with the world’s most remarkable people (world changers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders) to uncover their life-changing insights on the Insight Out Podcast. In this episode, we talk about:
0:00- 2:12
What it was like working Elon Musk: his security detail and event planning
2:12-5:18
What makes Elon Musk so successful: first principles thinking and asking the right questions
5:18-7:10
why Billy started podcasting, and how being a sales director translated into podcasting
7:10 - 9:45
How Billy brought on world class guests, and the value proposition of podcasting
9:45 - 13:01
Billy’s principles for creating great podcast content: leveraging emotion, peaks, deep preparation, and flexibility
13:01 - 15:44
Favorite Insights: debunking commonly held beliefs, thinking in versions, and assuming positive intent
15:44 - 18:41
Billy’s award winning film, creating an atmosphere for success and nailing details
18:41- 20:14
Why you don’t need to niche down to be successful, and why you need to launch early
20:15 - end
Billy’s advice to take advantage of every moment in life:
- why it’s never too late, or too early, to do what you you’re supposed to do
- not living for other people; going after the legacy you want to lead
I interviewed Chris Orlob, formerly Director of Sales and Go-to-Market for new products at Gong. Today, Chris is building a stealth start up designed to address problems in the hiring process in sales.
Chris specializes in scaling SaaS startups into IPO-able unicorns toward 1B ARR in a clearly defined, and two part framework. First, Chris grows the company from 0-100 million by building demand via thought leadership, sourcing and training A+ sales talent, and building a scalable and repeatable sales process that can run autonomously. Second, Chris implements new growth vectors by helping companies go-multi product and build multiple 100M+ ARR businesses, head up market and close 7-8 figure deals, and increase net dollar retention to enter the upper quartile of SaaS companies.
In this episode, we talk about:
0:00-1:06: intro
1:06- 3:55: Crafting thought leadership campaigns at the early stages: optimizing market selection and common mistakes
3:55-5:29: Chris’ initial thoughts on creating markets that typically don’t consume thought leadership
5:29-8:45: when sales processes should start to become scalable, and how to begin to build scalable systems by defining exit criteria
8:45 - 11:10: Common mistakes in building systems around exit criteria: ignoring pain driven selling
11:10- 13:00: how to help reps transition to pain driven selling: eliminating ambiguity
13:00-15:05: how companies should about ambiguity in the sales for reps across stages of growth
15:05- 17:28: how thought leadership and content should shift as companies scale
17:28- End: transitioning to growth: when to launch new products, what it looks like to transition to the enterprise and go up market
I interviewed Tejaswi (Teja) Gautam, VP of Consumer Platforms at InMobi, a unicorn start up that enables brands, developers and publishers to engage consumers through contextual mobile advertising. Unlike most people building products, Teja does not have a degree in computer science. He started out by failing programming classes in college, and his first job after college was on a factory floor. After working in sales and operations at other companies, Teja worked his way up to being the Head of Delivery in North America at InMobi and eventually transitioned to building products. Now, Teja is building an innovative future of work community, #1 rated substack page for his category (future of work), and novel tools to support his community.
In this episode, we talk about:
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how Teja went from flunking programming courses to building products at InMobi (0:00-12:30)
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how Teja stays motivated and how he thinks about succeeding in high risk, 0 to 1 situations (12:30-16:10)
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what Teja thinks may have carry over for founders (16:10-19:12)
-the future of work: what's not working, and what role DAOs can play in fixing broken processes (19:12-end)
Check out Teja's substack (which is #1 on the future of work category) here: Future of Work, Future of You | Tejaswi Gautam | Substack
disclaimer: Teja is only sharing his personal views which do not neccesarily reflect those of InMobi.
I interviewed Alex Johnson, creator of the fintech takes newsletter and podcast which is a subsidiary publication of Workweek. Workweek is a media company with a 10-million-dollar venture capital arm managed by its creators. Prior to becoming a full-time content creator, Alex experienced almost every single side of the industry in major enterprises, and smaller companies. Alex, for example, was formerly the Director of Fintech Research at Cornerstone Advisors, and prior to Cornerstone, Director of Portfolio Marketing at FICO.
In this episode, we talk about:
- what’s keeping Alex up at night in Fintech 0:00-2:42
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the fintech bloodbath and how companies like Robinhood can navigate the crisis 2:42-5:52
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innovations in fintech that can provide sustainable value during the downturn 5:52-8:51
-what sector of fintech startups Alex would work for, and why 8:51- 11:58
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how Alex would hack getting smart on Fintech as junior VC or founder 11:58-14:22
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common mistakes in building and maintaining motivation 14:22 -end
Landon is the host of a top rated business podcast called InTheir20s where he interviews influential business leaders and extraordinary 20-somethings to talk about their 20s.
Guests include: Steve Wozniak, Ev Williams, Jason Calacanis, Cathy Bessant, Ruben Harris, Sekou Kaalund, Jewel Burks-Solomon, Beto O'Rourke, Andy Dunn, Tim Hardaway Sr, and many more.
Currently, Landon is a Chicago GM at Drive Capital, a venture capital firm with 1+ billion AUM. Formerly, Landon was an executive at Inside, a media company that produces value-driven newsletters, events, and podcasts for over 250,000 business leaders, founders, and entrepreneurs. Investors include Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and Sequoia Capital. Inside was founded by Angel Investor Jason Calacanis.
time stamps:
0:00-1:35
Day 0 of InTheir20s
1:36-3:55
Guest acquisition, and phases of InTheir20s (0 to 1 and growth)
3:56- 5:44
what motivated Landon building from day 0 to 1
5:44- 7:36
Common Threads / Insights from guests of InTheir20s
7:36- 9:50
Figuring out your 20s, finding direction and your passions
9:50- 10:27
What’s fun about the hard days for Landon
10:50 - end
What’s most important for founders, and venture capitalists
I interviewed Jonathan Aberman. Jonathan is a highly respected and valued thought leader on entrepreneurship and innovation. He is a Managing Director at Amplifier Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital fund specializing in high technology resulting from government investments, partner at Ruxton Ventures, Dean of Marymount's School of Business and Technology, host of What's Working in Washington, a podcast and weekly radio show on Federal News Network’s WFED (AM 1500) examining innovation in one of the least understood business communities in the country, and former columnist on innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development for the Washington Business Journal.
Jonathan has unique expertise in the melding of national security and entrepreneurship with technology commercialization, and has worked on this issue with a broad range of national security agencies and universities on these matters, including DOD Laboratory establishment, DARPA, the Air Force, the Army, the Department of Homeland Security, George Mason University and the University of Maryland, at College Park. His activities regarding entrepreneurship and national security resulted in the formation of Tandem National Security Innovations, a national innovation community that has helped national security entities such as DARPA, DHS, SOCOM, and JSOC, and others locate and engage with nontraditional sources of innovation.
He was referred to in Forbes Magazine as the “unsung hero” of the attraction of Amazon HQ2 to the Greater Washington region. He is often quoted in national publications including Axios, Bloomberg, CNN, Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He is also an active and regular participant on panels involving innovation, entrepreneurship and technology as well as a keynote speaker at similar events.
Timestamps:
0:00-1:11: Introduction
1:12-3:25: Consulting with organizations like DARPA
3:25-7:32: Insight into innovation clusters, defense technology, and building a career in venture capital
7:32-9:57: emerging AI technology, innovations in healthcare, and a new way to map government organizations
9:57-13:58: how commercializing government technology from instutions like DARPA works
13:58-17:56: how Joanthan and Ruxton Ventures support entreprenuers commercializing government technology
17:56-21:5: Jonathan's radio shows, and writings for the Washington post, including highlights from Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Stanley Mcchrystal
(highlights from 19:25-21:50)
21:54-23:00: Producing High Quality Journalism
23:10- End: tips for young professionals, or anyone who wants to get smarter
Today, I interviewed Shaun Gold. As Microsoft pointed out in MSN when they featured his content venture called YouTopian Journey, Shaun is the true definition of a polymath.
He is a lifelong entrepreneur, best-selling author, international speaker, advisor and super connector to start-ups and standouts, Jeopardy contestant, and screenwriter.
Formerly known as “the nightlife Ninja,” Shaun has been recognized for his non-traditional strategies to promote and enhance nightlife, superstar performances, media events, and luxury product launches with major brands and companies.
As a super connector with a large and varied network, he collaborates with everything from publicly traded companies to startups in order to help develop and amplify deeply engaging products and services that resonate with a new generation of consumer.
In this 40’ episode, Shaun and I talk about building companies from 0 to 1, maintaining motivation and responding to failure, some of his most impressive failures including losing on Jeopardy, and how he thinks about building and iterating through new products along with advice for founders, GPs, young people, and anyone who wants to build something new.
Some rough time stamps:
0:00-12:00 – what it’s like building 0 to 1, maintaining motivation and responding to failure as a founder
13:26-17:37 – some of Shaun’s most impressive failures like losing live on Jeopardy
20:00- end – how Shaun thinks about entering new industries, and tips for founders, young people, or anyone who wants to build something new
If you'd like to learn more about how you can work with Shaun, connect with him on LinkedIn here: Shaun Gold | LinkedIn
Today, I interviewed Shamus Madan, the 16-year-old host of the MBIT Podcast. The MBIT podcast is in the top 2% of podcasts globally and was just featured on Business Insider. Today it has 2,000+ listeners with 3 million+ social Impressions/Year. And just 18 months ago, the MBIT Podcast had only 8 listeners.
Shamus’ guests include a rolodex of absolute legends like Mark Cuban and Tim Draper just to name a couple.
Shamus and I talk about:
- Building MBIT from 0 to 1, and scaling to new heights (0:00-9:22)
- Insights from guests such as Mark Cuban and Timothy Draper (9:22- 13:09)
- Creating and distributing content tailored for a Gen Z audience at scale (13:09- end)
I spoke to Cameron Porter, Founder & Managing Partner of Sophon Ventures and former Head of Crypto at AlleyCorp, a venture studio responsible for founding companies like MongoDB and Business Insider. Prior to AlleyCorp, Cameron was a professional athlete with Major League Soccer (MLS) and studied Computer Science at Princeton.
Sophon Ventures is an early-stage frontier technology fund that aims to bring VC back to its founding ethos by taking a fearlessly intellectual approach to investing to target technologies that others may not even believe to be real. Sophon identifies investment opportunities through an intensive primary research process leveraging relationships with leading industry experts like Dr. Chris Mattmann, CTO of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.
Sophon believes in getting more ideas and research in the hands of capable investors, operators, and founder. As such, Sophon is exploring the creation of syndicated research and consulting membership built around a thesis driven approach to venture.
Cameron and I talk about:
- Sophon’s role in building the future of venture capital, evangelizing and building frontier technology (0:00-5:14)
- Sophon’s innovative community membership (5:15-6:50)
- Emerging computational models, quantum computing, the future of the metaverse and non-deterministic blockchains (7:08-12:15)
- Cameron’s path from the MLS to venture capital & leveraging mental models from best-in-class institutions to accelerate his development (12:15-End)
As always, if you want to get involved with the show, reach out to me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/neil-feldman-92877a19a, or by email at neilfeldman34@gmail.com
To launch my new business podcast, I interviewed Michael Sikand, founder and CEO of Our Future.
With over 600M+ collective views and 600K+ combined subscribers, Our Future is the #1 source of business for the next generation.
In May 2020, Michael launched Our Future by cold-emailing the world's biggest business leaders and interviewing them during
lockdown, and featured legends like the CMO of Chipotle, CEO of DocuSign, and CFO of Spotify just to name a few.
Eventually, Michael pivoted Our Future to leverage the power of short-form video on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
We talk:
· Starting, scaling, and pivoting our future (0:00 to 8:48)
· Gen Z Psychology (8:34 – 10:55)
· Michael’s tips on getting into entrepreneurship, career development, and launching your own podcast
(4:30-6:10, 10:55- End)
If you want to do an episode with me, please
reach out to me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/neil-feldman-92877a19a or by email at neilfeldman34@gmail.com
To work with Michael, contact him at michael@ourfuturehq.com