Geeks Of The Valley: Recent Episodes
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. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Rick is the CEO of Illumination International, a family office based between the US and Asia. He is a seasoned investor specializing in distressed consumer assets, with an impressive track record of managing a diversified portfolio of over six businesses. His expertise extends into the real estate sector, where he has successfully developed and constructed multi-family residential complexes in the Midwest. Rick is also recognized for his strategic procurement abilities and commodity specialization, further enhanced by his high-level political connections. Rick graduated from Purdue University, where he studied Business Administration and Management. He furthered his education by earning a master's degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Southampton Business School. * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iyang-li-3b54a9a0/
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Craig S. Smith, born on October 13, 1955, in Spokane, Washington, is an American journalist and former executive at The New York Times. Until January 2000, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, notably covering the rise of the Falun Gong movement in China. In 2000, he joined The New York Times as the Shanghai bureau chief, reporting extensively on the practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners in China.
In 2002, Smith moved to Paris and reported from over forty countries, including Iraq, Israel, and Kyrgyzstan. He covered significant conflicts such as the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the 2003 Iraq War, and the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese War, as well as the 2005 unrest in the French banlieues.
In 2008, he became the executive editor of a financial news venture by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li Tzar Kai and later served as senior vice president of Li's Pacific Century Group. Smith returned to The New York Times in late 2011 as China managing director, where he founded and ran their first foreign language site, cn.nytimes.com.
In late 2016, he came back to the U.S. as a writer at large for the Times, focusing on Canadian stories, before retiring in 2018. He now writes about artificial intelligence for the Times and other publications. Additionally, he served as a special government employee for the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and hosts the podcast "Eye on AI," which is ranked number 2 among AI-related podcasts by Feedspot.
* Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-s-smith-58680010/
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Dr. Seth Dobrin is the founder and CEO of Qantm AI, a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) with over two decades of experience driving innovation in the tech space. Formerly IBM’s inaugural Global Chief AI Officer, Dr. Dobrin has made significant contributions in developing human-centered AI strategies that drive business modernization and data-driven insights. His work has been recognized globally, earning accolades such as AIConics Innovator of the Year and a spot among the Top 10 Most Influential Chief AI Officers in 2023. Dr. Dobrin’s multidisciplinary background, including a Doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology, allows him to integrate AI, data, and business transformation seamlessly. A vocal advocate for responsible and inclusive AI, Dr. Dobrin continues to be a thought leader at major technology conferences, and his work has been featured in outlets like BBC, Forbes, and NPR. Tune in to learn how AI is reshaping industries and what the future holds for this groundbreaking technology. * Website: https://qantm.consulting/ * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdobrin/ * Substack: https://siliconsandstudio.substack.com/
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Eric Davich is the Founder and CEO of Jammy, a mental health coaching app with music committed to enhancing the emotional well-being of young adults. Prior to Jammy, he co-founded Songza, later acquired by Google, and was an early team member of Amie Street, acquired by Amazon. During his 8.5 years at Google, he led various partnership marketing functions for Android, YouTube Subscriptions, and Google Play. His depth in music, mindfulness, and mental health comes from a lifelong practice in emotional regulation through music, meditation, studying mindfulness, and facilitating Google's 'Fundamentals of Mindfulness' course. Recognized in Forbes '30 Under 30,' Davich's blend of technological expertise, entertainment experience, and mindfulness knowledge uniquely equip him to drive innovations in mental health technology. * Website: http://jammy.chat * Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericdavich/
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John Patrick Mullin is a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur and builder, specializing in DeFi, blockchain technology, digital assets, and Web3. He is the CEO and co-founder of MANTRA and SOMA.finance, with over 10 years of experience in crypto and digital asset investment. John's journey began with Bitcoin in 2013 while studying International Business at SLU-Madrid. He later earned dual Master's Degrees in Management and Economics, working as a senior research analyst at a prominent Chinese State-Owned bank. Inspired by his passion for FinTech, John left his banking job to co-found a crypto exchange project in Hong Kong. Although it was ahead of its time, this endeavor solidified his desire to be an entrepreneur. He went on to establish MANTRA, a Layer 1 blockchain for RWA tokenization, and SOMA.finance, a US-regulated decentralized finance application. John has raised substantial funding for these ventures and has spoken at leading universities worldwide. He enjoys sports, travel, and connecting with motivated individuals. John is happily married and shares his life with two furry companions. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jp_mullin888.
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-patrick-mullin/
* Twitter: https://x.com/jp_mullin888
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Nitin Mahajan, a visionary in the tech industry, is actively transforming the tech universe one company at a time while currently building 88 Ventures to achieve unprecedented success.
Recognizing the transformative power of AI, Nitin is passionate about ensuring its widespread adoption in a way that positively impacts lives and maximizes its reach to the masses.
88 Ventures serves as the culmination of Nitin's unwavering dedication, extensive knowledge, and far-reaching vision. Through this venture, he envisions unlocking new opportunities and fostering meaningful connections in the professional world by embracing the potential of technology.
In addition to his role at 88 Ventures, Nitin has also embraced the role of an Angel Investor, supporting individuals with grand ambitions and empowering them to bring their unique visions to life. His mission is to uplift those whose aspirations may go unnoticed by others.
If you share Nitin's values and are driven to build profitable bootstrap businesses while making a positive impact, he is here to guide you on your journey. Reach out to Nitin, and rest assured that you will connect with someone who understands your vision and is committed to helping you succeed. Just drop him a text, and a world of possibilities awaits!
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitinmahajan2/
* Website: https://88ventures.org/
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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).
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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
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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
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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。 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/geeksofthevalley/support
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/
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Dennis has a 15-year track record working across corporate innovation and technology venturing in Silicon Valley and beyond.
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. * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisclarkjr/
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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/
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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
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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
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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
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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
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David Siegel is the CEO of Meetup, the largest platform for finding and building local communities. He has 25 years of experience as a technology and digital media executive leading organizations through innovative product development, rapid revenue growth, and digital traffic acceleration. Prior to joining Meetup, David was CEO of Investopedia and, before that, President of Seeking Alpha. David holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics & Economics and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he teaches strategic planning and entrepreneurship. He hosts the podcast Keep Connected, which is dedicated to the power of community
David's social handles:
- LinkedIn: @davidmsiegel
- Twitter: @Davidmeirsiegel
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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
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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
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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/
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Eva is a General Partner at Fika Ventures, an early stage fund investing in companies that leverage the power of data as a core component of their business model. Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a serial entrepreneur and founder, with a company experience portfolio including Applied Semantics (AdSense), Factual, Google, Youtube and Navigating Cancer. She is active in the non-profit sector, serving on the boards of California Community Foundation and UCLA Technology Development Group. She was recently the EIR for the city of LA working with Mayor Eric Garcetti. Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evaho1/
- Twitter: eva_ho
- Website: fika.vc
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Bridger Pennington is the founder of 2 investment funds that have done over 217 deals in the last 4 years.
He has started helping others launch their own funds through Investment Fund Secrets, an online program with over 4,000 students designed to help them start investment funds without working on Wall Street or having an Ivy League degree.
Bridger has spoken on stage to thousands of people across the United States and is determined to help entrepreneurs scale their businesses through launching their own funds.
- Free course on funds: https://www.investmentfundsecrets.com/freegift
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridger-pennington-670035127/
- Instagram @bridger_pennington
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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/
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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/
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- Faizan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faizanbhatty/
- Kenan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenansaleh/
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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
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Danielle is a cofounder and general partner of 1517. She has worked with young entrepreneurs for about a decade. In 2010, during the founding of the Thiel Fellowship, Danielle joined to lead the design and operations. She's worked with some of the most prestigious founders like Vitalik Buterin and Ritesh Agarwal. Previous to her work with Peter Thiel, Danielle founded and directed Innovations Academy in San Diego, a K-8 charter school serving 400 students, with a focus on student-led project based learning and other alternative programs.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellestrachman/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DStrachman
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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/
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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/
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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
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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/
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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
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
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/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
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/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
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/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Patrick Curtis is the Chief Monkey and Founder of Wall Street Oasis, the largest community focused on careers in finance with courses ranging from financial modeling to private equity interviews. He grew up near Boston and went to Williams College before working in investment banking for two years at Rothschild in New York and Private Equity at Tailwind Capital for four years. After getting his MBA from Wharton in 2010, Patrick has worked full time for over a decade on Wall Street Oasis.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmanningcurtis/
- Website: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Rabeel is the Founder and CEO of Sarmayacar, the leading VC firm in Pakistan, and a Kauffman Fellow. He currently serves on the boards of Bykea, Dawaai, ProCheck and Patari. Prior to his return to Pakistan in 2018, Rabeel spent a decade in London, working as Vice President of private equity at GIC (Singapore's sovereign wealth fund), after starting his career as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley. Rabeel graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was also the President of the International Students Association for two years.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabeel-warraich-572a5714
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rabeelwarraich
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Michael Lints has over 20 years of experience helping innovative businesses obtain the resources, insights, and expertise they need in order to be successful. Michael has been a startup operator, investor, and mentor, and is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include LP fundraising and portfolio management for Golden Gate Venture's investments at Series B and beyond.
Michael’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2000 when he co-founded an IT managed services startup in Europe that was acquired by a large data and telecom company six years later. In 2007, Michael founded a venture fund focused on Dutch small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them with capital financing, business development, and strategy. During the same period, he was invited to join the Economic Development Board Rotterdam as Vice Chairman. In that role, he launched the Young Economic Development Board where he brought together a highly influential Dutch network to develop a sustainable framework for public-private relationships that increased local business investment while leveraging the public infrastructure.
Michael has helped support firm and portfolio-level priorities that have spanned fundraising, capital allocation, and corporate development. He has helped to raise over USD $60M for Golden Gate Ventures and its portfolio companies, including helping to raise later stage rounds from external investors as well as leading two early strategic acquisitions.
Outside of work, sport is an essential part of Michael’s life. He is a former member of the Dutch karate team and the former ambassador for Treknology (Trek bikes distributor in Singapore). Michael actively participates in Ironman 70.3 races and marathons. He is also passionate about social justice and uses sport as a vehicle to raise awareness for important issues such as civil rights, economic opportunity, and education. Besides sport, Michael is an active writer and writes articles regarding life, balance, and venture capital onmichaellints.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhlints/
- Article: https://medium.com/adversus/i-am-exhausted-and-want-you-to-know-why-961f0932c742
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Michael Lints has over 20 years of experience helping innovative businesses obtain the resources, insights, and expertise they need in order to be successful. Michael has been a startup operator, investor, and mentor, and is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include LP fundraising and portfolio management for Golden Gate Venture's investments at Series B and beyond.
Michael’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2000 when he co-founded an IT managed services startup in Europe that was acquired by a large data and telecom company six years later. In 2007, Michael founded a venture fund focused on Dutch small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them with capital financing, business development, and strategy. During the same period, he was invited to join the Economic Development Board Rotterdam as Vice Chairman. In that role, he launched the Young Economic Development Board where he brought together a highly influential Dutch network to develop a sustainable framework for public-private relationships that increased local business investment while leveraging the public infrastructure.
Michael has helped support firm and portfolio-level priorities that have spanned fundraising, capital allocation, and corporate development. He has helped to raise over USD $60M for Golden Gate Ventures and its portfolio companies, including helping to raise later stage rounds from external investors as well as leading two early strategic acquisitions.
Outside of work, sport is an essential part of Michael’s life. He is a former member of the Dutch karate team and the former ambassador for Treknology (Trek bikes distributor in Singapore). Michael actively participates in Ironman 70.3 races and marathons. He is also passionate about social justice and uses sport as a vehicle to raise awareness for important issues such as civil rights, economic opportunity, and education. Besides sport, Michael is an active writer and writes articles regarding life, balance, and venture capital onmichaellints.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhlints/
- Article: https://medium.com/adversus/i-am-exhausted-and-want-you-to-know-why-961f0932c742
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
With over 2 million followers on Linkedin, Eric Sim, CFA, is one the most followed thought leaders on career and life skills. Eric is the founder of Institute of Life (www.iol.life) whose mission is to train young professionals to be successful at work and in life. Previously when he was based in Hong Kong, Eric served as a managing director at UBS Investment Bank and as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at Hong Kong University of Science of Technology. Today, he teaches at Queen’s University (Canada) and Renmin University in Beijing. A sought-after keynote speaker, Eric has spoken in London, Beijing, Bahrain and New Delhi but these days he is hosting rooms on Clubhouse app.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simeric/
- Website: http://iol.life/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Sarah Chen’s career spans across venture capital (VC) and innovation, in Asia and the US. She is Co-Founder of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women and Beyond The Billion. Previously, she pioneered a corporate venture capital unit within $13Bn publicly traded Asian conglomerate, Sime Darby, investing in later-stage biotechnology companies. Since then, she has been at the forefront of multiple-million cross border investments, structuring and executing commercialization plans for her portfolio companies. Named Forbes 30 Under 30, she is a recognized speaker and adviser on VC/innovation and women in leadership, having been featured among others on Der Spiegel, the Wall Street Journal, and at the United Nations.
Sarah currently sits on multiple boards including 131 & counting, a bipartisan effort backed by Bloomberg Government and Holland & Knight to fete the unprecedented number of women serving in the House and Senate in the US and encourage more qualified women to run for office; and Lean In Malaysia, which she co-founded, a platform accelerating women into leadership, recognized as the voice of credibility for professional women issues in Muslim- majority Malaysia. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Laws, LL.B (Hons.) from King’s College London.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal/
- Website: http://www.sarah-chen.com/
- Company Website: https://beyondthebillion.com/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
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/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Ben Narasin is a Venture Partner at NEA. 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 who 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 most recently served as a General Partner at Canvas Ventures, and was previously with TriplePoint Capital, where he oversaw the firm’s seed funding investment activities.
Like many of NEA’s partners, 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
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Dr. Lewis Pinault is an Airbus Ventures Partner based in Tokyo, managing Airbus Ventures’ activities in the Asia Pacific region. Advising and supporting Airbus innovation projects for over a decade, Lewis also designed and led incubator and innovation centers for the UK Government’s Digital Catapult, EDS, Shell, and others, building from his own mid-career experiences as a NASA researcher trying to link startups to large corporates. Previously, Lewis was a Financial Institutions Partner at Coopers & Lybrand in Singapore and Hong Kong, beginning his early consulting career at The Boston Consulting Group in Tokyo. His lifelong passions for exploring the oceans and space seeking the most advanced technologies available first brought him to Asia as an engineer and corporate planning analyst with Nihon Kokan.
Lewis earned his Bachelor of Science degree at MIT, completed an MSc at London School of Economics as a Fulbright Scholar, and was a NASA Space Grant Fellow at the University of Hawaii, where he completed his juris doctorate in international law and planetary geophysics.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewispinault/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lewispinault
- Astra's Launch: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/rocket-startup-astra-to-go-public-astr-via-spac-at-2point1b-valuation.html
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Field has spent over a decade in Singapore investing across South East Asia. Field is the Head of Venture and Impact Investing at Vulpes Investment Management. In April 2020, in the heart of the ‘first wave’ of COVID-19, Field quickly raised a Special Opportunities Fund to invest in venture backed companies as valuations came off and venture investing slowed, while other venture investors contemplated how COVID-19 would affect their ability to invest and their current portfolio companies’ performances.
He joined Vulpes in 2015 and in addition to his investing responsibilities, he has served as the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of the fund manager licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Field serves on the Board of Patamar Capital, the largest impact investment fund in South East Asia, and is the founding partner of Seed Myanmar, both of which are managed by Vulpes. Field is also a Board member of PactSafe, an Indianapolis based SaaS business and the global leading platform for clickwrap agreement management and e-signatures.
Field graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of San Francisco School of Law.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/field-pickering-2767b34/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Avichal is a successful serial entrepreneur with executive experience at Google and Facebook, which acquired his previous company. At Facebook he was Director of Product Management for the Local product group. Avichal is an investor in companies such as Airtable, Boom Supersonic, Color Genomics, Cruise, Figma, Newfront Insurance, Notion, Nova Credit, Threads, and others.
Electric Capital is a venture firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, blockchain based businesses, fintech companies, and marketplaces. Electric Capital and its founders have invested in crypto companies such as Anchorage, Bitwise, Celo, Coda, Coinbase, Derivadex, Mobilecoin, Oasis, and NEAR.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avichalgarg/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/avichal
- Website: https://avichal.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
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/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Henri Arslanian is the PwC Global Crypto Leader, the former Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hong Kong where he teaches the first FinTech university course in Asia. Henri advises many of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, investors, financial institutions and tech firms on their FinTech and crypto initiatives as well numerous governments, regulators and central banks on Fintech and crypto regulatory and policy matters.
Before joining PwC, Henri was with a FinTech start-up and previously spent many years with UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong. Henri started his career as a financial markets and funds lawyer in Canada and Hong Kong.
He holds a Masters in Chinese Law from Tsinghua University; a joint Global Executive MBA from Columbia Business School, London Business School, and Hong Kong University; a Bachelor of Law from the University of Montreal (Dean’s List of Excellence) and a Masters in Transnational Law from the University of Sherbrooke, where he was awarded the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal for Academic Excellence for having graduated with the highest grades of the university.
With over 500,000 LinkedIn followers, Henri is a TEDx and global keynote speaker, a best-selling published author and is regularly featured in global media including Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
Henri was named by LinkedIn as one of the global Top Voices in Economy & Finance and is the host of the FinTechCapsules™ and CryptoCapsules™ social media series.
Henri was recently named by Onalytica as the #1 most influential individual on Finance globally on LinkedIn out of 50k+ individuals working at the top professional services and management consulting firms in the world.
Chambers Global named Henri the “highest profile FinTech consultant in Hong Kong” and Asian Private Banker awarded him the “FinTech Changemaker of the Year” award.
Henri’s latest book “The Future of Finance: The Impact of FinTech, AI and Crypto on Financial Services” published by Palgrave Macmillan, was ranked as one of Amazon’s global top 10 best-sellers in financial services and was recognized as one of the “Best FinTech Books of All Time” by Bookauthority.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henriarslanian/
- Website: https://www.henriarslanian.com
- Crypto Capsule: https://www.henriarslanian.com/cryptocapsules
- FinTech Capsule: https://www.henriarslanian.com/fintech-crypto-capsules
- 10 Life Principles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WssJOlrRDxM
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Henri Arslanian is the PwC Global Crypto Leader, the former Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hong Kong where he teaches the first FinTech university course in Asia. Henri advises many of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, investors, financial institutions and tech firms on their FinTech and crypto initiatives as well numerous governments, regulators and central banks on Fintech and crypto regulatory and policy matters.
Before joining PwC, Henri was with a FinTech start-up and previously spent many years with UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong. Henri started his career as a financial markets and funds lawyer in Canada and Hong Kong.
He holds a Masters in Chinese Law from Tsinghua University; a joint Global Executive MBA from Columbia Business School, London Business School, and Hong Kong University; a Bachelor of Law from the University of Montreal (Dean’s List of Excellence) and a Masters in Transnational Law from the University of Sherbrooke, where he was awarded the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal for Academic Excellence for having graduated with the highest grades of the university.
With over 500,000 LinkedIn followers, Henri is a TEDx and global keynote speaker, a best-selling published author and is regularly featured in global media including Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
Henri was named by LinkedIn as one of the global Top Voices in Economy & Finance and is the host of the FinTechCapsules™ and CryptoCapsules™ social media series.
Henri was recently named by Onalytica as the #1 most influential individual on Finance globally on LinkedIn out of 50k+ individuals working at the top professional services and management consulting firms in the world.
Chambers Global named Henri the “highest profile FinTech consultant in Hong Kong” and Asian Private Banker awarded him the “FinTech Changemaker of the Year” award.
Henri’s latest book “The Future of Finance: The Impact of FinTech, AI and Crypto on Financial Services” published by Palgrave Macmillan, was ranked as one of Amazon’s global top 10 best-sellers in financial services and was recognized as one of the “Best FinTech Books of All Time” by Bookauthority.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henriarslanian/
- Website: https://www.henriarslanian.com
- Crypto Capsule: https://www.henriarslanian.com/cryptocapsules
- FinTech Capsule: https://www.henriarslanian.com/fintech-crypto-capsules
- 2021 Predictions: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-money-10-crypto-predictions-2021-henri-arslanian/?trackingId=6Xz3eudG5ET9cJK%2B8gWZBw%3D%3D
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Henri Arslanian is the PwC Global Crypto Leader, the former Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hong Kong where he teaches the first FinTech university course in Asia. Henri advises many of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, investors, financial institutions and tech firms on their FinTech and crypto initiatives as well numerous governments, regulators and central banks on Fintech and crypto regulatory and policy matters.
Before joining PwC, Henri was with a FinTech start-up and previously spent many years with UBS Investment Bank in Hong Kong. Henri started his career as a financial markets and funds lawyer in Canada and Hong Kong.
He holds a Masters in Chinese Law from Tsinghua University; a joint Global Executive MBA from Columbia Business School, London Business School, and Hong Kong University; a Bachelor of Law from the University of Montreal (Dean’s List of Excellence) and a Masters in Transnational Law from the University of Sherbrooke, where he was awarded the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal for Academic Excellence for having graduated with the highest grades of the university.
With over 500,000 LinkedIn followers, Henri is a TEDx and global keynote speaker, a best-selling published author and is regularly featured in global media including Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
Henri was named by LinkedIn as one of the global Top Voices in Economy & Finance and is the host of the FinTechCapsules™ and CryptoCapsules™ social media series.
Henri was recently named by Onalytica as the #1 most influential individual on Finance globally on LinkedIn out of 50k+ individuals working at the top professional services and management consulting firms in the world.
Chambers Global named Henri the “highest profile FinTech consultant in Hong Kong” and Asian Private Banker awarded him the “FinTech Changemaker of the Year” award.
Henri’s latest book “The Future of Finance: The Impact of FinTech, AI and Crypto on Financial Services” published by Palgrave Macmillan, was ranked as one of Amazon’s global top 10 best-sellers in financial services and was recognized as one of the “Best FinTech Books of All Time” by Bookauthority.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henriarslanian/
- Website: https://www.henriarslanian.com
- Crypto Capsule: https://www.henriarslanian.com/cryptocapsules
- FinTech Capsule: https://www.henriarslanian.com/fintech-crypto-capsules
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Ore Adeyemi is the Managing Director and Head of Strategic Innovation Investments at HSBC.
Ore is based in Silicon Valley, leading investment efforts for HSBC’s Corporate Venture Capital arm, Strategic Innovation Investments (SII). The SII team invests in companies globally that are strategically aligned with HSBC in order to drive innovation and adoption of technologies across business lines. Some sample SII investments include Crowdstrike (IPO), Kyriba (acquired), Openfin, Menlo Security, Quantexa etc.
Prior to SII, Ore was an Investment Director within HSBC Principal Investments (PI) focussing on private equity investments, and managing HSBC’s global portfolio of co-investments alongside leading global buy-out firms. Ore has also worked within HSBC's Investment Banking Group on the Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) team, where he executed a wide range of M&A transactions across several sectors and geographies. Prior to joining HSBC, Ore worked for firms such as Dubai Holding / Dubai Development and Investment Authority, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Hewlett Packard across functions such as strategy, research & development, product development etc.
Ore has an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, and also received a Bachelor of Science degree from MIT.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ore-adeyemi-8a0a49/
- Website: https://www.ventures.hsbc.com/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Peter Tuchman is a born and bred New Yorker fueled by espresso and an insatiable curiosity. He attributes his keen sense of fashion to his mother who stressed the importance of good ties. To this day, Hermes is the only brand of tie Peter wears in her loving memory.
Tuchman’s first endeavor after college was a jazz record store and African art gallery on Carmine Street in New York City. Two years later he sold the record store and took a job working in Africa for a Norwegian oil company. On returning to New York, Peter got a job as a clerk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. It didn’t take long for Tuchman to become a broker with a Wall Street career that’s taken him from the crash of 1987 to the boom of the 90’s and beyond. Thirty-five years later, there’s still no place he’d rather be. Peter’s passion for the market coupled with his distinct features and animated persona have made him the most iconic trader at the New York Stock Exchange and the most photographed man on Wall Street. Tuchman’s resemblance to Albert Einstein in conjunction with his eccentric personality means he is recognized by thousands and has earned him the moniker “Einstein of Wall Street."
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tuchman-18816329
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/einsteinowallst
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/einsteinofwallst
- Website: https://www.einsteinofwallst.com/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tuchman
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Peter Tuchman is a born and bred New Yorker fueled by espresso and an insatiable curiosity. He attributes his keen sense of fashion to his mother who stressed the importance of good ties. To this day, Hermes is the only brand of tie Peter wears in her loving memory.
Tuchman’s first endeavor after college was a jazz record store and African art gallery on Carmine Street in New York City. Two years later he sold the record store and took a job working in Africa for a Norwegian oil company. On returning to New York, Peter got a job as a clerk on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. It didn’t take long for Tuchman to become a broker with a Wall Street career that’s taken him from the crash of 1987 to the boom of the 90’s and beyond. Thirty-five years later, there’s still no place he’d rather be. Peter’s passion for the market coupled with his distinct features and animated persona have made him the most iconic trader at the New York Stock Exchange and the most photographed man on Wall Street. Tuchman’s resemblance to Albert Einstein in conjunction with his eccentric personality means he is recognized by thousands and has earned him the moniker “Einstein of Wall Street."
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-tuchman-18816329
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/einsteinowallst
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/einsteinofwallst
- Website: https://www.einsteinofwallst.com/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tuchman
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
彦坂雄一郎 経歴
ゴールドマンサックス証券にてキャリアをスタートさせ、約９年間の在籍中にはクレジット商品の証券化、様々なアセットクラス（債券、デリバティブ、株式、金利）のトレーディングに従事。大学時代に航空宇宙やテクノロジーを学び、興奮を覚えた事をきっかけに、ディープテックのスタートアップの世界に飛び込み、VR・AI・ロボティクスのスタートアップ企業においてCOOを勤める。2019年にエアバスベンチャーズにストラテジックアドバイザーとして参画。主にアジア圏における投資に従事。
慶應義塾大学理工学部卒業、東京大学大学院経済学研究科において金融工学を専攻及び修了。
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuichiro-hikosaka-063994117/
- Forbes: https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/33105
- BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54232563
- Website: https://airbusventures.vc/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Yuichiro started his career at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, where he spent 9 years covering credit derivative securitization, and trading multi-asset classes including corporate bonds, derivatives, equity and interest rate products. Building on his early education and excitement for aerospace and related technologies, he then moved to the deep tech venture world, becoming Chief Operating Officer of deep-tech startups in virtual reality, AI and Robotics. In 2019, Yuichiro joined Airbus Ventures as a Strategic Advisor in 2019, principally supporting Airbus Ventures’ activities in the Asia Pacific region.
Yuichiro earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Keio University and his Masters degree in Economics and Financial Engineering from the University of Tokyo.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuichiro-hikosaka-063994117/
- Forbes: https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/33105
- BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54232563
- Website: https://airbusventures.vc/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Kamal Hassan is a Managing Partner of the Loyal VC, founded in 2018. The Loyal Startup Index Fund has invested in 125+ companies, in 30+ countries while delivering top quartile financial returns, thanks to its network of 300+ expert advisors. Loyal is the fund Kamal wished he had available during his 20 year career as an entrepreneurial CEO, and 15 year career as an angel investor. It draws on Kamal's experience and network built in 7 years as a Global Director with the Founder Institute accelerator, and an alumni association president with INSEAD, where he earned his MBA, after an undergrad degree in engineering physics.
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kamalhassan
- Website: https://loyal.vc/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
As an entrepreneur-turned-VC, 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. Previously, 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/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jzhaos
- Newsletter: https://nexttrillion.substack.com/
- Website: http://www.tfund.capital/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Growing up an enthusiastic meat eater in Texas, Jacek watched Earthlings during his philosophy bachelors which sent him down a path of animal activism. After a few years of militantly promoting veganism, he pivoted to help animals through a market-oriented approach. This led him to attain an MBA in entrepreneurship and build the ProVeg Incubator, an accelerator exclusively for plant-based and cultured food startups.
He is now the founder of Kuleana, the Impossible Foods of seafood. Their first product is plant-based raw tuna. Kuleana recently graduated from Y-Combinator and just closed their seed round. They are currently hiring so if you think you’ve got what it takes to improve the oceans and our health, reach out!
- Website: kuleana.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacekprus/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kuleanafood
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kuleana.seafood/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
As one of the top 5 Women to watch in Asia Tech (Nikkei Asian Review), Carman Chan is a veteran in the technology industry with decades of experience as an entrepreneur with multiple exits, a tech columnist and a globally recognized venture capitalist.
Carman began her entrepreneurship journey when she was in university. In order to pursue her passion for the newly emerging Internet, she passed up a fully sponsored PhD from Imperial College to become a serial internet entrepreneur. Carman’s first company, English Street was acquired by HKET(0423.HK), a Hong Kong listed newspaper group. Her second company was merged with Hiiir in Taiwan and and later acquired by FarEasTone (4904.TW).
Carman is also a best-selling book author for several accelerated learning books. Spending eight years as a tech columnist for IT magazines, she wrote about internet business models and internet marketing.
After several successful exits Carman started Click Ventures, her angel fund. With a focus on providing seed to series A financing to technology startups, Click Ventures is differentiated by offering mentorship from entrepreneurs with over twenty years of first-hand experience.
Click Ventures has grown into a leading investment manager, and two of its funds are featured as Top 5 Seed Fund (Vintage 2003-2015) in the world and Top 4 Funds to Watch by Preqin respectively.
Click’s current portfolio includes 40+ investments including Spotify.com, Docusign, Palantir.com, Memebox.com, Youappi.com...etc. Due to her deep experience, Carman is frequently invited to speak or serve as a panel member for prestigious events around the world. She has appeared in 10+ countries at high profile events including the Web Summit, Slush, AVCJ Private Equity and Venture Forum, and Silicon Dragon.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmanchan/
- Website: https://www.clickventures.vc/
- AngelList: https://angel.co/carmanchan
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Ryan Terribilini comes from technology and public policy roles at Google and Ripple to study Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. We discuss some of the emerging issues related to internet privacy and surveillance in a world in which we increasingly interact online and in which global finance operates using new technologies. Ryan also explains android ecosystems, bitcoin and distributed ledger technology. Ryan is a member of Pembroke College, Oxford.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanterribilini/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Sam is former hedge fund analyst turned nonprofit operator who is from Milwaukee, WI. After graduating from Williams College, Sam worked as investment banker for JP Morgan and as an analyst with Balyasny Asset Management where he focused on midstream oil and gas services. For the last four years, he has managed a nonprofit based in Amman, Jordan that empowers refugee women and girls through sport while he also completed his law and business degree at Stanford University. Sam loves all forms of cheese, downhill skiing, and The Office.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-krieg-26a48b55
- Website: https://www.thomasstreetpartners.com/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Suman Talukdar is a venture-backed operator turned investor at AiSprouts.vc, where he is working with entrepreneurs on the next big ideas. With a track record of $7B in exits, with companies including Cloudflare and Anaplan, Suman invests in companies with the traits he's seen make others highly successful. As an investor, his portfolio includes Ripple, Palantir, and Sharetribe -- recent exits include 6d.ai and Apprente. He started his professional career building agent-based enterprise "AI" software. A published author on innovation, Suman has an MBA from Harvard and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Computer Engineering from Rice University. He is married, has three children, is an avid tennis player, and enjoys listening to classical music.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stswww/
- Website: https://www.aisprouts.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/stswww
- AngelList: https://angel.co/u/stswww
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Jamie Rufe is a Taipei-based professional and entrepreneur, who is currently getting his Masters in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language at National Taiwan Normal University. He's been living in the Chinese-speaking for 10 years (2.5 in China, 7+ in Taiwan), and has 8 years experience working in local Chinese and Taiwanese companies, including 2 years serving as Executive Assistant to Foxconn's Chairman & CEO, Terry Gou. Jamie has been learning Chinese for 15 years and is currently the founder of Rufe Consulting, a Chinese language coaching agency that helps Western professionals learn how to confidently speak basic Chinese in a few months.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-rufe/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfyDH-nqRAbO8fYdrmuG29g?view_as=subscriber
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamie.rufe/
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Ross Pomerantz AKA Corporate Bro, is a graduate of Stanford Business School and a professional comedian and content creator. He parodies life as a Silicon Valley salesman with weekly sketch comedy that can be found on Youtube or Instagram @Corporate.bro.
- Website: https://corporatebro.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corporatebro/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCorpBro
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corporate.bro/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIOK2ypWf84RF1lFiOd9_eg
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Keagan Wernicke is the Chief Operating Officer at Newchip. Newchip is the #1 remote accelerator with a special focus on helping founders raise money. A founder, marketer, and serial entrepreneur, Keagan also currently owns a boutique marketing agency, Moonshot Marketers, that helps founders run paid SEM & social ads, and craft marketing strategies. He started his entrepreneurial career right out of college and sold his first company, GroupThreads, an e-commerce platform, in 2017.
- Website: https://launch.newchip.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keaganwernicke/
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Giampaolo Parigi is a London-based venture capitalist, merchant banker, serial entrepreneur, and chairman of a single family office with 30 years of international track record on the primary and secondary markets. As a deal-maker, he ha invested and advised on transactions in five continents and over seventy-five countries across many different industry sectors and served on the board of directors of financial institutions both in Europe and the USA where he was nearly ten years in Silicon Valley as a VC. He regularly advises institutionals including sovereign wealth funds and banks and raises capital for privately-held and public companies all over the world from deep tech start-ups to large multinationals and governments, primarily in finance, infrastructure, advanced logistics, energy, mining, technology and agribusiness investments. He has been the first to nose-dive private equity style investments to structure greenfield infrastructure developments in the Emerging Markets in the CIS, SE Asia, China and South Africa. Giampaolo is a published author and often invited by leading universities in the USA and Europe and international conferences worldwide as a keynote speaker on topics of finance, venture capital and private equity. Giampaolo speaks English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and has a basic knowledge of Dutch, Russian, Norwegian.
- Website: https://www.giampaoloparigi.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/giampaoloparigi
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Tanya founded the Ladies Investment Club in Singapore in 2017. Eager to enter the world of venture, she established a team of 40 female investors providing hard to access funding to female founders. Tanya has a track of building investor teams to provide the right combination of skills required to support founders. Tanya has invested in 6 startups during the 2.5 years she managed the Ladies Investment Club and sits on multiple advisory boards. She has experience of working within portfolio companies and pivoting businesses.
Prior to founding the Ladies Investment Club, Tanya had a 15-year legal career at some of the world’s largest law firms. Tanya spent 7 years in Real Estate legal teams before moving into M&A legal management at both Simmons & Simmons and Norton Rose Fulbright in London. Tanya’s strengths lie in identifying exceptional talent, building strong business relationships with startup founders, without compromising her judgement and applying logic to solving problems.
- Contact: Tanya@hercapital.vc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyarolfe/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HerCapital_vc
- Website: https://www.hercapital.vc
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Rina is a serial entrepreneur and Asian thought leader in the fields of startup incubation and acceleration, angel investments, venture capital funding, entrepreneurship education, startup ecosystem development, social enterprises, micro-entrepreneurship, and technology-enabled businesses. She is a hands-on entrepreneur with a proven track record in setting up and accelerating startup enterprises with technology or social focus.
As a Co-Founder and Board Director of FICUS Venture Fund, Rina was instrumental in launching the first Shariah-compliant investment company in Malaysia that upholds highest standards of ethical practice. Rina is also a Board Member of the Malaysian Trade (MATRADE) Commission, where she participated in crafting and executing Malaysia’s export promotion strategy in line with the government’s Industry 4.0 Economic Agenda.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rinaneoh/
- Website: https://www.ficusvc.com
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Malcom is the Chairman and General Counsel of Gravitas International, Founder and CEO of Gravitas.Financial (Challenger Bank), and Managing Director of his own firm Malcolm Tan Chambers LLC, amongst other companies, Malcolm Tan is an established Singaporean lawyer-entrepreneur with extensive experience in the construction, telecommunications, engineering, retail, IT and financial industries. Trained and still practising as a lawyer, Malcolm is also skilled in litigation, corporate law, and mergers and acquisitions. He previously held legal counsel positions in both global and regional capacities across the Asia-Pacific region, MENA, and North America.
He published a book last year on “How to ICO/ITO – Legal and Regulatory Framework in Singapore” and has already, and is still advising over 80 companies who have already, or are intending to ICO/ITO in Singapore and around the world, with clients from the UK, Malta, Russia, Ukraine, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, etc. Many clients are also in the midst of licence applications in Singapore for Payment Services Act licences, and/or other types of regulated licences such as Recognised Market Operators, Commodities, Precious Metals etc.
In the ICO, IEO, STO, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain space, Malcolm has done regulatory reviews and consulted with multiple governments, and is frequently a speaker and thought leader for DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) and ICO and Cryptocurrency regulations and law.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmtan/
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Jin is an entrepreneur and scholar currently based in Stanford, California. Along with her co-founder Janos Perczel, she started Polygence, an Ed-Tech company that offers project-based research mentorship to students around the world. Jin graduated from Princeton University as the Valedictorian of the class of 2017, and she went on to Stanford to pursue a PhD in Comparative Literature. She is currently taking a break from her studies to work full-time on Polygence.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jin-yun-chow-stanford/
- Email: jin@polygence.org
Featured Articles:
- https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/04/28/jin-yun-chow-named-valedictorian-grant-storey-selected-salutatorian
- https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/05/26/other-words-valedictorian-chow-finds-connection-purpose-language-and-life-princeton
- https://www.polygence.org/blog/2
- https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2097656/hongkonger-who-tutors-prisoners-gets-top-ivy
- https://kempton.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/2017-princeton-valedictory-address-jin-yun-chow/
- https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/06/06/2017-valedictory-address
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John Patrick Mullin is a FinTech entrepreneur, blockchain expert, and educator living in Hong Kong. He started his career in investment banking having worked at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai, China. He then was a founding team member and Managing Director of trade.io a cryptocurrency exchange and advisory firm based in Hong Kong. He then set up the Asian business operations, for Tritaurian Capital, a US broker-dealer. He's currently an advisor for Rio DeFi, a leading Decentralized Finance company based in Hong Kong. As an educator, he has spoken at leading universities across the world, including Harvard, London Business School, and Peking University. Additionally, John is a mentor for Entrepreneur First, a leading, deep-tech accelerator and LongHash, a global blockchain accelerator.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-patrick-mullin/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jp_mullin009?lang=en
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Nuno Goncalves Pedro is the founder and managing partner of Strive Capital, the first ever quant early-stage VC firm in the Bay area, focused on consumer and enterprise software, with investments in App Annie, Gusto, Rubrik, Enish (IPO), Virta Health, DraftKings, among others. He is also the venture partner at Grishin Robotics, a Sand Hill Road venture capital firm focused on smart hardware and consumer investments, with investments in companies such as Ring (Sold Amazon), Spin (Sold Ford), Zipline, among others. He is the co-founder and co-host of decipheredshow.com and the creator of the “Rejection & Adversity as a path to Growth” methodology (https://bit.ly/3badkvb). Nuno has served and continues serving as a board member, advisor and coach to various start-ups, corporations and non-profits in the US, Europe and Asia.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nuno-goncalves-pedro-69732a/
- Keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cpM1BBZavE&feature=emb_title
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Byeonghun Kim (BK) is a Social Entrepreneur, Engineer, Founder of EcoMake, and Founder of Elwasta. Developer of startup ecosystems, he has traveled to various entrepreneurial communities around the globe to pursue his vision of decentralizing startup resources and venture opportunities to underdeveloped areas of the world. As a 22-year-old entrepreneur, he shares his insights on starting businesses in the US and developing startup communities in Greater Europe and South Korea.
- Contact: bhun.kim98@gmail.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byeonghun/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Miko Matsumura is a General Partner with Gumi Cryptos, a US $30M venture capital fund focused early stage blockchain startups and a Venture Partner with BitBull Capital, a cryptocurrency fund-of-funds. He is also an advisor to Arrington XRP Capital. He has been a keynote speaker at dozens of blockchain conferences around the world. He is also cofounder of crypto exchange Evercoin,
Miko participated in the first wave of the Internet as chief Evangelist for the Java Language and Platform at Sun Microsystems and is now fully engaged in Internet of value. With 25 years of enterprise software marketing experience in Silicon Valley, he has raised over $50 million in venture capital for Open Source startups such as Gradle, Hazelcast and has participated in multiple exits including INFRAVIO, webMethods, Db4O. He has invested in open source money, advising successful startups like Celsius ($2B in loans), Pundi X (global point of sale devices), Refereum ($30M Gamer Affiliate Marketing), WiFiCoin (wifi Sharing), Guardian Circle (Decentralized Global 911 Emergency Services) and Hub (Decentralizing Professional Social Networking). He is also an LP with Focus Ventures, a firm with over $800M under management, 9 IPOs and 44 exits. He holds an Master’s degree in Neuroscience from Yale University where he worked on abstract computational neural networks. He’s leads the Crypto Underground meetup in San Francisco and is a well known speaker at many bitcoin and blockchain events.
- Website: https://www.miko.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikomatsumura/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikocryptos
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikojava
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Jonathan was born and raised in Medellin, Colombia, where he developed a strong entrepreneurial spirit that has led him to seek opportunities around the world. At age 18, he moved to Montreal, Canada, traveling out of his hometown for the first time ever. In Canada, he embraced an identity of a global citizen, learning several languages and traveling to 60+ countries. During his Bachelor’s at McGill University, he was also able to intern at the United Nations in Ecuador and study abroad in the Netherlands and Australia. Subsequently, he was chosen as a Schwarzman Scholar to complete a Master’s degree at Tsinghua University. Currently, he resides in Beijing, China and works at Bytedance as a Content Strategy Manager for a key SaaS product (http://www.larksuite.com/).
Simultaneously, he has taken on a few education consulting projects and public speaking trainings; commercialized Colombian coffee in China; closed a few international commodity trade/import & export deals; invest in real estate in Colombia; and continue to travel the world.
He aims to become an entrepreneur and investor; an inspirational figure and leader; a philanthropist; and a Colombian diplomat.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanlopez-ca/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonathanlopez.ca/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Darren Chu, CFA, is the Founder of Tradable Patterns. As seen on Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Factset, Interactive Brokers and Inside Futures, and downloaded daily by the world's largest asset manager and 4 of the 10 largest hedge funds by AUM, Tradable Patterns publishes 3 newsletters. Today’s Top 3 Trades offers technical analysis on 3 CME/ICE commodity/index futures or spot FX markets (with coverage for 2 markets from a designated asset class(es) for each weekday as seen in the Watchlist), plus the top trade idea for the day from any asset class. All 3 markets covered are selected based on their likelihood to exhibit trend reversal or continuation during the week that begins on the day of coverage, based on technical analysis and news flow. For instance, Monday coverage is on 2 Agris (and potentially 1 Index), while Tuesdays are devoted to 2 Indices (and potentially 1 Soft). Equities & ETFs is the most recently launched weekly newsletter providing technical analysis on monthly and weekly charts of 25 industry leaders and ETFs either at/near 5 plus year lows or which offer high dividend yields. Crypto Weekly Outlook covers crypto industry fundamentals and technicals/fundamentals Sundays on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Samir Jezzini is a Business Consultant, Private Wealth Manager, founder of Higbos Holdings, and founder of Estate Token Trust. Coming from a wealth and investment management background and looking through the eyes of the successful, he offers an intricate insight on the best business strategies and most lucrative investments in Africa and the region. With almost a decade of experience within the large continent, he has executed on marketing and business development strategies successfully. Scrupulously studying and evaluating the economic fundamentals of the markets has allowed him to make informed and rewarding decisions in short and long-term investments.
- Contact: sj@higbosholdings.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samir-jezzini-a02751121/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamirJezzini
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samir.jezzini/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
1982 Ventures is a Singapore based VC firm focused on investing in early stage fintech start-ups in Southeast Asia. We have experience leading and executing fintech deals in the region. Our focus makes us the first port of call for fintech founders and first money in. Our local networks provide us exclusive deal flow, on-the-ground insights and access to decision makers. 1982 Ventures is investing in and supporting the best founders to positively impact the future of financial services in Southeast Asia. For more information visit: https://1982.vc/.
Scott is the Managing Partner of 1982 Ventures. He is responsible for setting the investment and deal execution strategy and manages overall operations. He previously was a Principal at tryb Group and led the Investments team. He led investments into First Circle, leading digital SME lender in the Philippines, Asia Collect, a regional digital debt collection services, and supported the team in a growth equity deal, Chinsay, global enterprise technology SaaS.
Prior to joining tryb in December 2016, Scott worked as Director and Office Head for Moore Stephens, leading corporate finance and CFO services practice, in Shanghai. At Moore Stephens, Scott worked closely with EU- and US-based boards and financial sponsors to manage financial operations for their investments in Asia, providing investment planning, restructuring and transaction support, while serving as regional finance head for 22 companies.
Scott started his career in New York with PwC. He worked in PwC’s Fixed Income and Credit Group where he worked with investment banks and portfolio managers on fixed income derivatives. He has extensive experience modeling fixed income derivatives and other sophisticated credit products. He graduated with a degree in Finance and Investments from Baruch College and is a Certified Management Accountant. Scott has previously served as Board Treasurer and Executive Committee member for the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. In his free time, Scott enjoys assisting social entrepreneurs with finance and accounting issues, volunteered for Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and has been a lecturer at kanthari.org’s India campus since 2013.
- Contact: scott@1982.vc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skrivokopich/
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Akash Raju is the Co-Founder and CEO of Glimpse, a startup enabling product placements in the real world. He is a Purdue graduate where he led many startup initatives and has past experience at companies like Microsoft and Tesla.
- Contact: akash@tryglimpse.com
- LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/akash-raju
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/akashraju4
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Darren Chu, CFA, is the Founder of Tradable Patterns. As seen on Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Factset, Interactive Brokers and Inside Futures, and downloaded daily by the world's largest asset manager and 4 of the 10 largest hedge funds by AUM, Tradable Patterns publishes 3 newsletters. Today’s Top 3 Trades offers technical analysis on 3 CME/ICE commodity/index futures or spot FX markets (with coverage for 2 markets from a designated asset class(es) for each weekday as seen in the Watchlist), plus the top trade idea for the day from any asset class. All 3 markets covered are selected based on their likelihood to exhibit trend reversal or continuation during the week that begins on the day of coverage, based on technical analysis and news flow. For instance, Monday coverage is on 2 Agris (and potentially 1 Index), while Tuesdays are devoted to 2 Indices (and potentially 1 Soft). Equities & ETFs is the most recently launched weekly newsletter providing technical analysis on monthly charts of 20 industry leaders and 5 ETFs either at/near 5 plus year lows or which offer high dividend yields. Crypto Weekly Outlook covers crypto industry fundamentals and technicals/fundamentals Sundays on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
We sat down with Michael Catt, founder of the University of Kansas Blockchain Institute. He currently is a business development associate at Nebula Ventures, a fin-tech and property tech accelerator fund based in New York City. He shares his story of how he first discovered cryptocurrency on Coinbase to eventually helping to secure a $2 Million Dollar research grant from Ripple's $50 Million Dollar Grant Program to expand blockchain research efforts and bridge the knowledge gap between university students and the curriculum. Learn more about Nebula Ventures https://nebulaventures.com/ & KU Blockchain Insitute https://kublockchain.com/.
- Contact: mcatt@nebulaventures.io
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcatt/
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Icey Jiang was a TEDx speaker, a venture capitalist, a former engineering student from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a strategic thinker, she is a curious and creative individual with a passion for emerging technology. With an entrepreneurial spirit, an agile and forward-thinking by nature, and an appreciation for digital tools that resolve every day problems, she uses her spare time taking on a proactive role in community services and contributing to the technology startup ecosystem in Hong Kong. Last year, Icey was selected by Google as a Women Techmakers Scholar representing Hong Kong within Asia Pacific. She was also invited by the Australian government to foster STEM and entrepreneurship by women in APAC economies. She is currently actively engaged with her own startup community INNOGIRLS, and her mission is to empower more female youth to excel in innovation and entrepreneurship through design thinking. She likes “Learn the rules like a pro, break them like an artist.”
- Contact: ruijie.jiang.ij@gmail.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iceyjiang/
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Jeff is the Co-founder and CEO of Bluenest Pte Ltd. Jeff brings significant venture building experience from his early days contribution in Lazada and Zilingo . He worked on commercial strategy, new market expansion and growth in both ecommerce B2C and B2B space. Prior to his stint in internet ventures, Jeff was working with ERA Realty as a Marketing Director.
- Contact: jeff@bluenest.sg
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-lim/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Darren Chu, CFA, is the Founder of Tradable Patterns. As seen on Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Factset, Interactive Brokers and Inside Futures, and downloaded daily by the world's largest asset manager and 4 of the 10 largest hedge funds by AUM, Tradable Patterns publishes 3 newsletters. Today’s Top 3 Trades offers technical analysis on 3 CME/ICE commodity/index futures or spot FX markets (with coverage for 2 markets from a designated asset class(es) for each weekday as seen in the Watchlist), plus the top trade idea for the day from any asset class. All 3 markets covered are selected based on their likelihood to exhibit trend reversal or continuation during the week that begins on the day of coverage, based on technical analysis and news flow. For instance, Monday coverage is on 2 Agris (and potentially 1 Index), while Tuesdays are devoted to 2 Indices (and potentially 1 Soft). Equities & ETFs is the most recently launched weekly newsletter providing technical analysis on monthly charts of 20 industry leaders and 5 ETFs either at/near 5 plus year lows or which offer high dividend yields. Crypto Weekly Outlook covers crypto industry fundamentals and technicals/fundamentals Sundays on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
We sat down with Samson Lee, the CEO of Coinstreet Partners,a Digital Asset & Wealth Management Asset Tokenization Exchange Platform. The firm enables the next generation of decentralized full-integrated investment banks. He shares his story and impact of the STO industry on Blockchain and regulations surrounding it today.
- Email - sl@coinstreet.partners
- Website - www.coinstreet.partners
- LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/samsonlee/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
We sat down with Keegan McNamara, who is a Student Venture Partner at Contrary Capital. He shares his story and impact of how he broke into the Venture Capital world. We also discuss the types of innovative projects and trends he’s seen and advice on how to support your ideas. You can reach Keegan at keegan@contrarycap.com and learn more about his project at https://aloud.fyi. Follow him at keeganm.org and @keegan_mcnamara on Twitter!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support
Welcome to “Geeks of the Valley” Podcast, which connects with some of the brightest minds globally, who are leading their respective industries today, to discuss the hottest upcoming industry trends and how their work is affecting the global economy.
As a podcast we focus across four unique industry sectors from Venture Capital & Private Equity, to Innovative Minds, Entrepreneurship, and Generation Z’s.
If you have your own suggestions of people you would like to hear from, feel free to reach-out to us at geeks@geeksofthevalley.com.
- Website: https://geeksofthevalley.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/geeks-of-the-valley/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geeksofthevalley/support