Smart Humans explores the world of alternative investments. From Venture to Collectibles, NFTs to Real Estate, Art to Debt and beyond - we discuss a new world of investment opportunities and the catalysts that impact their demand. Join our host Slava Rubi
The Smart Humans with Slava Rubin podcast is an incredible resource for new investors like myself. It has provided me with a ton of new information and insights that are directly relevant to my interests in the current market. I am eagerly looking forward to listening to more episodes and gaining further knowledge from the discussions.
One of the best aspects of The Smart Humans with Slava Rubin podcast is the calibre of guests who appear on the show. Slava Rubin does a fantastic job of bringing on serious original thinkers from the alternative investing world. These are individuals who possess a wealth of knowledge and experience in their respective fields, making each conversation truly enlightening. As a listener, it's incredibly valuable to hear from experts who can provide unique perspectives and insights into investing.
Moreover, the topics covered in this podcast are highly relevant and important in today's market. Whether discussing trends in alternative investments or exploring cutting-edge strategies, each episode delves into subjects that investors should be paying attention to. The content is well-researched and thought-provoking, allowing listeners to gain a deeper understanding of various aspects of investing.
While The Smart Humans with Slava Rubin podcast has numerous positive attributes, there are a couple of areas where improvements could be made. Firstly, there might be some benefit in providing more contextual information at the beginning or during episodes. This could help newer listeners fully grasp certain concepts or terms being discussed. Additionally, providing more actionable takeaways or practical advice for listeners would enhance the value of each episode even further.
In conclusion, The Smart Humans with Slava Rubin is an outstanding podcast for new investors seeking valuable insights and information about alternative investments. The caliber of guests ensures engaging conversations filled with original thoughts and ideas from industry experts. Although there may be room for improvement regarding contextual information and actionable takeaways, overall, I highly recommend this podcast to anyone looking to expand their investment knowledge and stay informed about emerging trends in the market.
Louisa Klouda is the CEO and Founder of Fenchurch Legal, and is responsible for overseeing all business operations. Louisa founded Fenchurch Legal in 2020 after an interest in the litigation finance market sparked an idea to apply a secured lending model to litigation finance. She discovered a market largely dominated by funders focusing on high-value, complex cases such as class actions, however, there was a lack of support for smaller claims. This insight led to the creation of Fenchurch Legal. Before launching Fenchurch Legal, Louisa operated the broking and dealing desk for a corporate brokerage and finance firm in London. In this role, she gained extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and investment product structuring.
Charles Clinton is the CEO and co-founder of EquityMultiple, an online platform that enables individuals to invest in institutional-grade commercial real estate. Before launching EquityMultiple in 2015, Charles was a real estate attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where he advised major private equity clients such as Blackstone and KKR on transactions exceeding $10 billion, including Blackstone's acquisitions of the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Motel 6, and Hilton's restructuring ahead of its IPO. Charles earned his JD and Business Law Certificate from Berkeley Law and holds a BA from Amherst College, where he captained the swimming and water polo teams. He is FINRA Series 7 and 66 certified and resides in New York City with his wife and two daughters.
Alan Feld is the founder and managing partner of Vintage Investment Partners. Prior to founding Vintage, Alan Feld was a General Partner at Israel Seed Partners and at Vertex Ventures. Prior to Vertex, Alan was the Managing Director of Evergreen Capital Markets/Robertson Stephens Israel. Alan received an MBA from York University in Toronto, an L.L.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and a B.A. in Commerce and Finance from the University of Toronto.
Kyle Reidhead is Co-Owner & Head of Research at Milk Road, a leading crypto investing media company, and Founder of Impact3, a crypto-native marketing agency helping top protocols and brands in crypto grow.
Vincent founder Slava Rubin and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund did a deep dive into Glean, the multi-billion dollar AI startup helping to companies get the most out of their enterprise data. They looked at Glean's growth trajectory, the competitive landscape and a possible IPO timeline.
Kenny Rose is the founder and CEO of FranShares, the first platform to package income-producing franchise assets into diversified, SEC-regulated funds for everyday investors. A Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) and former franchise broker, Kenny worked with over 600 franchise brands in more than 100 industries. Kenny's views on franchising have been featured in Business Insider, Forbes, ABC, The Hustle, American Express, the Amazon feature book, “More Than Just French Fries,” and other publications worldwide, in total reaching over 300 million people throughout the world, making him a sought-after voice for RIAs, family offices, and institutions seeking durable, inflation-hedged cash flow.
Vincent founder Slava Rubin and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund looked at Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded neurotechnology company. They talked about the company's growth, strengths, challenges, IPO prospects, and much more.
Jim McCann is an entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist, renowned for transforming a single flower shop into the billion-dollar omni-channel retailer, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. His entrepreneurial journey began with a deep belief in the importance of social connections, which inspired him to create a company dedicated to helping people build meaningful relationships.The company's portfolio includes well-known brands such as Harry & David®, PersonalizationMall.com®, Cheryl's Cookies®, The Popcorn Factory®, Things Remembered®, and SmartGift Inc., along with its newest additions, Card Isle®, an innovative greeting card company, and Scharffen Berger®, a premium chocolate company.Jim is also dedicated to philanthropy, with a particular focus on supporting individuals with developmental disabilities. He founded Smile Farms, Inc. a not-for-profit organization in 2015 that provides meaningful work opportunities for people with disabilities. In addition to his role as Founder and Chairman of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., Jim serves as Chairman of Worth Media Group. He also holds various other positions, including Vice-Chairman and Lead Independent Director for International Game Technology PLC, and serves on several private and not-for-profit boards.
Nate Helbach is the founder and chief executive officer of Neutral. While studying finance and sustainability at Harvard Extension School, Nate developed the framework of what is now Neutral, which redefines conventional development strategies and mitigates the harmful effects of the built environment on our ecosystem. Nate founded Neutral based on this thesis in 2020 and continuously seeks to evolve and innovate new sustainable and regenerative development methods to rejuvenate our built environment. He leads financing, capital markets, accounting, investments, product development, and construction oversight of the company's low-, mid-, and high-rise developments.
Vincent CEO Eric Cantor and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund looked at Anthropic, the American AI startup behind LLM model Claude. They talked about the company's rapid growth, the competitive landscape in AI, and how the recent emergence of DeepSeek could affect Anthropic's outlook.
Peter Grosskopf was one of the founding investors and currently serves as the Chairman for Argo, a precious metals investment platform that enables secure and digital access to physical gold. With over 35 years of experience in the financial services industry, Peter served as Chief Executive Officer of Sprott Inc. for 12 years from 2010 to 2022. During that time, he drove the growth of the fellow Sprott Family Company from $5 billion to more than $20 billion of assets under management. Peter is a CFA® Charterholder and earned an Honours Degree in Business Administration and a Masters of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Vincent founder Slava Rubin and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund, analyze SpaceX, the most valuable private company in the world. They talk about the company's growth, strengths, challenges, IPO prospects, and answer investor questions.
Vincent CEO Eric Cantor and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund talked about OpenAI, the American AI giant.
Slava Rubin and Marcelo Ballvé, Pre-IPO analyst at Sacra, analyzed Stripe, the global payments platform last valued at $95 billion.
Zac Townsend is the co-founder and CEO of Meanwhile, the world's first Bitcoin life insurance company. Meanwhile's mission is to democratize access to financial protection and security. Formerly, Townsend was a leader in the financial services practice of McKinsey & Company and served as the inaugural Chief Data Officer of California. Townsend was also the founder of a banking API business called Standard Treasury which was sold to Silicon Valley Bank.
In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin and Vincent's Adam Katz recap the year in alts, and talk about what to what to expect in 2025 in real estate, pre-IPO venture, art, collectibles, and crypto.Adam Katz is a co-founder and Head of Research and Content at Vincent. He is a seasoned real estate investor and syndicator and a longtime investor in alternative assets. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School and has an undergraduate finance degree from Washington University in St. Louis.
Meb Faber is the founder and CEO of Cambria Investment Management. He is the manager of Cambria's ETFs and separate accounts. He hosts The Meb Faber Show podcast and has authored numerous leather-bound books. He is a frequent speaker and writer on investment strategies and has been featured in Barron's, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Meb graduated from the University of Virginia with a double major in Engineering Science and Biology.
Derrick Barker is the co-founder and CEO of Nectar, a fintech company focused on innovative financing solutions for Commercial and multi family real estate investors. His journey in real estate began during his time at Harvard, where he started acquiring properties from his dorm room. Following graduation, Derrick joined Goldman Sachs as a bond trader but continued to expand his real estate portfolio, primarily focused on affordable housing in Atlanta, his hometown.After three years at Goldman and building a portfolio of 500 units, Derrick returned to Atlanta to focus full-time on real estate, eventually growing his assets to over 4,700 units, valued at $500 million. His work included revitalizing distressed neighborhoods by renovating affordable housing complexes, creating thousands of units and enhancing community stability.In 2021, Derrick co-founded Nectar with his wife, Brittany Mosely, also a real estate investor, to help other developers who own stabilized properties to access liquidity in the form of flexible capital without having to completely refinance their senior debt. Through small balance mezzanine debt and preferred equity solutions, Nectar supports multifamily projects across the U.S., enabling developers to expand quickly while delivering stable, risk-adjusted returns for investors.
Raj Gokal is the co-founder of Solana and president of Solana Labs. He also serves on the board of the Solana Foundation. He was previously focused on startups in behavioral health. He was Director of Product at Omada Health; EIR at Rock Health; Co-Founder of Sano, building consumer glucose sensors; and an investor at General Catalyst Partners. He started his career in hedge funds at companies like Meridian Capital Partners. Raj studied Finance at the Wharton School of UPenn.
Travis Jamison is a successful multi-time founder turned private market investor. He is the co-founder and managing partner of CapitalPad, a platform that enables accredited investors to invest in small business M&A deals, an asset class that has historically been out of reach for most investors.
Slava was co-founder and CEO at indiegogo in addition to being co-founder at Vincent, co-founder at Nillion and co-founder and Managing Partner of Humbition, an early stage venture fund. He is currently a member of the board for NYSE traded (WSO) Watsco Inc.
Andrew Luong is a personal finance and technology enthusiast and serves as the co-founder & CEO of Doorvest. Founded in 2020, Doorvest is an online way for everyone, everywhere to buy, own and sell investment homes. Doorvest currently manages over 400 homes and $100m in assets and is on a mission is to advance financial security for all.
Slava and Anthony talk about the impact of the election on private markets and the public stock market. They go through different private markets, including real estate, crypto, pre-IPO venture, art and collectibles, and talk about how each candidate can impact the economy and your investments.
Atish Davda is the co-founder and CEO of EquityZen, a leading marketplace for private company stock. For a decade, he has been responsible for running the firm, designing the organization, managing the leadership team, and guiding product development. He has spent 15+ years in fintech and asset management as an engineer, quant, and investor. He is an established leader in identifying novel markets, capturing opportunity with inventive technology applications, and running highly capital efficient operations. He has been a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and contributor on Forbes, CNBC, and Bloomberg. Atish holds a Bachelors of Economics and Finance from The Wharton School and a Bachelors of Computer Science and Engineering from University of Pennsylvania.
Auren Hoffman is CEO of SafeGraph. SafeGraph is a geospatial data company focused on understanding physical places. He is also GP of Flex Capital. He is the former CEO and cofounder of LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP) -- the largest middleware provider in marketing technology. He is the founder of the Dialog Retreat and investor in over 160 active technology companies. Auren holds a B.S.E. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley. Twitter: @auren
Mo Al Adham is the founder and CEO of Frec, the investment platform bringing sophisticated investing products like direct indexing to consumers, bypassing traditional wealth advisors. Prior to Frec, Mo was the first advisor at Instacart, joining the advisory board in early 2013. Mo was also the founder of Twitvid in 2008, the first video platform for social networks like Twitter. Mo joined Twitter in 2016 and spent 5 years in various product leadership roles. Mo has a bachelor's degree in Software Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Ben Reinberg is the Founder & Chief Executive officer of Alliance Consolidated Group of Companies, LLC, which specializes in medical office investing. He is a prominent figure in commercial real estate acquisition and investment and a widely recognized expert in the development and structuring of commercial real estate transactions. Ben brings immense value to the dealing process in his ability to build trust quickly, raise equity efficiently, solve problems, and bridge the gap between buyers and sellers.
Sim Desai is the Founder and CEO of Hiive, the first true marketplace for private company stock. Before founding Hiive, Sim spent over a decade at Setter Capital, where he founded and led the firm's venture capital secondaries team since 2015. He grew this business from a new entrant to VC/unicorn trading to its current position as a major global hub. Sim holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology from UBC and a JD/MBA from the University of Toronto.
Max Levchin is the founder and CEO of Affirm, the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Glow, a data-driven fertility company. Both companies were created and launched from his San Francisco based innovation lab, HVF (Hard, Valuable, Fun). Max was one of the original co-founders of PayPal where he served as the Chief Technology Officer until its acquisition by eBay in 2002. In 2002, he was named to the Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world as well as Innovator of the Year.Prior to HVF, Max founded and was CEO of Slide, a personal media-sharing service, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Max also helped create Yelp Inc., a consumer internet company, where he served as Chairman of its Board of Directors from its founding in 2005 until July 2015. He served on the board for Yahoo! Inc., an internet company, from 2012 until 2015. Max was born in Kyiv, Ukraine before moving to the United States and settling in Chicago in 1991. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he founded and led four other technology startups. Max is a serial entrepreneur, computer scientist, philanthropist and active investor in more than 100 startups.
Over a 25-year entrepreneurial career that spans IP communications, wireless telecom, and finance, Brian Dally has pushed the boundaries of how disruptive Internet technologies can be applied to solve large-scale consumer problems and distribute value to all.As the co-founder and CEO of Groundfloor, a wealth tech platform that allows everyone to build wealth through real estate, Brian has helped make private capital markets radically more accessible to new participants. Under his leadership, Groundfloor became the first company qualified by the SEC to offer direct real estate debt investments via Regulation A to non-accredited investors and accredited investors alike. In 2020, Groundfloor made its debut on Inc. Magazine's prestigious list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America. It's now been on the Inc 5000 list four years in a row. Most recently, Groundfloor was named to the 2024 Forbes Fintech 50 as one of the most important innovators changing the way people save, spend, and invest. Brian has also been recognized for his entrepreneurial leadership by many organizations.
Nelson Chu is an experienced serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Percent, the modern credit marketplace. After witnessing the inefficiencies in the private credit markets, Nelson was inspired to transform this industry for the better and founded Percent in 2018. He and his team have built an end-to-end credit platform unlike any other, empowering borrowers, underwriters, and investors to transact with confidence through governance, asset transparency, and market standardization. Nelson has been recognized by Private Debt Investor as a Rising Star in their annual list of the top 40 individuals shaping the future of private credit.
Ankur Nagpal is the founder of Carry and previously founded Teachable, which he scaled to $60M+ in ARR. Ankur also runs a venture fund, Vibe Capital and has invested in 100+ startups.
Darren Marble is a serial entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. Darren is the co-founder and CEO of Issuance, a leading software as a service (“SaaS”) platform for online capital raising. Issuance has processed more than $250 million from retail investors across its offerings to date. He is also an Executive Producer of Going Public, a groundbreaking original series that follows the stories of founders on their capital-raising journeys. For the first time, viewers globally can Click-to-Invest in featured companies while they watch.
Mark Gerson is an investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He co-founded Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), Thuzio, and most recently, 3i Members. Mark is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of United Hatzalah, a network of volunteer medics in Israel, and the African Mission Healthcare Foundation.3i Members is an investing network of 400+ investors—all who have exited a company or lead a family office. Members participate in monthly deal meetings, regional events, diligence discussions, and more. 3i deal flow is characterized by its high-yielding nature (15-20%+ IRRs), underwritable, uncorrelated, and off-market alternatives with asymmetric return profiles.See here:https://bit.ly/44ff6r1
Kelly Rodriques is the CEO of Forge Global, a leading global private securities marketplace. He's accrued decades of domestic and international experience founding and successfully operating growth companies in the financial technology sector and his fintech experience spans both investing and financial services leadership. Formerly, he was the CEO of Pensco, Totality and Novo and was an Operating Partner with Ignition Growth Capital; He founded and remains managing partner of Operative Capital, an early stage financial technology investment fund.
Kendrick Nguyen is CEO of Republic, a multifaceted venture firm and investment platform connecting global investors with tech startups. Prior to Republic, he served as general counsel of AngelList and was a Fellow at Stanford University. He is a founding adviser to CoinList, NOW Ventures and an angel investor himself. An immigrant from Vietnam, Kendrick has a strong interest in improving access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs in the US and beyond.
Rebecca Kacaba is the CEO and Co-Founder of DealMaker, winner of Lexpert's Top 40 Under 40, and has been named one of North America's most innovative lawyers by the Financial Times, and one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women 2022. After over a decade of practicing securities law, she took an ambitious leap from her partnership at the world's largest law firm and founded DealMaker to build a system that would make online capital raising mainstream. She is the force behind building DealMaker into one of Canada's Top 10 Fastest Growing Companies two years in a row as ranked by the Globe & Mail's Report on Business and a 2023 Deloitte Fast 50 Company-to-Watch. With a deep commitment to fostering a work culture that encourages ingenuity and creativity, Rebecca has helped guide DealMaker to land the second spot on Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators list. With her vision and drive, Rebecca as a regular featured speaker has become a trailblazer in the intersection of the capital markets and tech, and is committed to driving change and doing business the right way.
Charles Clinton is the CEO and co-founder of EquityMultiple and is responsible for shaping the strategic vision of the company and overseeing its daily operations. Charles also sits on EquityMultiple's Investment Committee and Board of Directors. Since its inception in 2015, EquityMultiple has transacted on hundreds of real estate investments, totaling over $5B in capitalization. Today, EquityMultiple serves over fifty thousand self-directed investors across the U.S.Prior to EquityMultiple, Charles was a real estate attorney with Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, where he worked on a variety of major transactions for private equity clients, primarily Blackstone and KKR. During his time at SImpson, he worked on over $10 billion in transactions, including Blackstone's $1.7 billion purchase of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Blackstone's $1.9 billion purchase of Motel 6 and Hilston's real estate asset restructuring and refinancing in advance of its $2.5 billion IPO. Charles received his JD and Business Law Certificate from Berkeley Law and Bachelors Degree from Amherst College, where he was the captain of the swimming and water polo teams. He has FINRA Series 7 and 66 registrations. He lives in New York City, where he grew up, with his wife and two daughters.
Matt Rodak is the CEO and founder of Fund That Flip, an end-to-end residential real estate lender, SaaS solution, and investment platform that empowers real estate entrepreneurs to create wealth and more value in their communities. After years in commercial property risk management, Matt decided to actualize his passion: real estate. However, he quickly became frustrated with the challenges of getting access to fast, reliable, and sustainable capital to finance his deals. And in 2014, Fund That Flip launched. Fund That Flip's award-winning platform and simple process allow borrowers to get loan commitments within 24 hours and the fastest closing of any hard money lender. Investors can then purchase fractional shares of those loans, historically earning more than 10.8% returns. The Platform and team provide first-class support and industry-leading transparency into every deal, while also offering unprecedented access to an asset class previously dependent on “who you know.” Fund That Flip has grown nearly 300% in the past three years, and to date has originated more than $2.2 billion in loans, with 99.7% of principal returned, and more than 93% repeat borrowers.
Mike Collins has been involved in almost every facet of venturing, from angel investing to venture capital, new business and product launches, and innovation consulting. He is currently CEO of Alumni Ventures Group, and launched AV's first alumni fund, Green D Ventures, where he oversaw the portfolio as Managing Partner and is now Managing Partner Emeritus. Mike is a serial entrepreneur who has started multiple companies, including Kid Galaxy, Big Idea Group (partially owned by WPP), and RDM. He began his career at VC firm TA Associates. He holds an undergraduate degree in Engineering Science from Dartmouth and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ben Miller is Co-Founder and CEO of Fundrise, America's largest direct-to-investor alternatives investment manager. Fundrise's mission is to use technology to build a better financial system for the individual investor, one that is simpler, lower cost, more reliable and transparent. They build software that enables the company to develop and manage investments uniquely well positioned to grow and preserve their clients' capital in any economic environment. Since launching America's first online real estate investment platform in 2012, Fundrise has now become the largest direct-to-investor alternatives investment manager with more than 1.6 million active users, more than $3.3 billion worth of equity under management, and $7 billion worth of real estate transacted. From private credit to real estate private equity to growth-stage venture capital, Fundrise offers investors exposure to some of the most prized asset classes in the world. Prior to Fundrise, Ben has decades of experience in real estate and finance. As Managing Partner of WestMill Capital Partners and President of Western Development Corporation, Ben was responsible for acquiring, developing, and financing more than $500 million worth of property.
Josh is the co-founder of Fanatics Collectibles and the founder of zerocool, the company's pop culture, art, and entertainment vertical. He is also a co-founder of StockX, the world's first ‘Stock Market of Things', where he led the rise from idea to billion-dollar company in less than three years, cementing StockX as the world's leading marketplace for sneakers, apparel, and collectibles. In 2019, Josh stepped down as CEO to focus on StockX's ‘startup within a startup activities', including leading the nascent trading cards vertical. A year later, he left StockX to return to his entrepreneurial roots with the goal of revolutionizing the trading card industry as he's done for sneakers. Before StockX, Josh founded and ran four other startups and, in between each, had varying corporate jobs ranging from IBM strategy consultant to Alston & Bird bankruptcy attorney. He has an undergraduate BBA and joint JD/MBA from Emory University.
Stewart A. Kohl is Co-Chief Executive Officer of The Riverside Company, a $10 billion global private equity firm founded to invest in premier companies at the smaller end of the middle market. Since 1988, Riverside has invested in more than 700 companies globally. The firm's investors include leading pension funds, endowments, funds-of-funds, insurance companies and banks. The firm employs more than 300 people in offices across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Kohl joined Riverside in 1993. Prior to that, he was a vice president of Citicorp Venture Capital, Ltd., the private equity arm of Citibank. In addition to his work with Riverside, Mr. Kohl serves as an Honorary Trustee of Oberlin College and of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. He is also on the Board of Directors of Cleveland Clinic and Co-Chairs its $2 billion Power of Every One Capital Centennial Campaign. He was inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Hall of Excellence in 2009. He previously served as Co-Chair of the Building for Hope Capital Campaign of the Center for Families and Children. Mr. Kohl earned the George S. Dively Entrepreneurship Award in 2018. He was inducted into the Northeast Ohio Business Hall of Fame in 2014. After spending 16 years as a “Heavy Hitter” participant in the Pan-Mass Challenge bicycle fundraiser, Mr. Kohl founded VeloSano, a similar event that has raised more than $20 million to fund cancer research since 2014. Mr. Kohl holds a BA from Oberlin College.
Logan Allin is the Managing Partner & Founder of Fin Capital where he is responsible for management of the firm, sourcing/making investments, maintaining board responsibilities, and adding operating value across the portfolio. Logan was most recently Vice President of SoFi Ventures, where he was tasked with investing in and working hands-on with FinTech companies, as well as running SoFi's accelerator and corporate development efforts. Prior to SoFi, Logan was focused on entrepreneurial advisory and operating roles at Light Street Capital, Formation 8/Group, Zanbato, Addepar, Point Finance, Price, BridgeAthletic and ONEHOPE. Prior to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Logan was a corporate executive, as Head of Strategy, overseeing the enterprise FinTech strategy and execution, while serving as a member of the Operating Committee at Atlantic Trust, the Private Wealth Management arm of Invesco (and now CIBC). Previously, Logan was a Senior Vice President in City National Bank's wealth management division (now part of RBC) where he led the technology strategy, open product architecture platform, and other strategic initiatives. Logan spent his earlier career in management consulting, in leadership positions at PwC, EMC, and Capgemini, focused exclusively on the intersection of Financial Services and technology. Logan earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in public policy and political science from Duke University and a M.S. in Management from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business where he was a Sloan Fellow.
Jake Brukhman is Founder & CEO at CoinFund. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia to computer scientists, Jake learned how to code at the age of fourteen. Starting from this early age, Jake closely followed the adoption of computing, the Internet, and mobile. Achieving degrees in mathematics and computer science, Jake spent the following 12 years of his career in pure and financial technology, quantitative research, and blockchain.
Kendrick Nguyen is CEO of Republic, an investment platform connecting tech startups and blockchain projects with global investors. Prior to Republic, he served as general counsel of AngelList and Fellow of Stanford University's Center for Corporate Governance. He is a founding adviser to NOW Ventures and CoinList, an ICO platform. An immigrant from Vietnam, Kendrick has a strong interest in improving access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs in the US and beyond.
Before co-founding StartEngine, Howard co-founded Activision and was the Chairman of Activision Studios from 1991 until 1997. As a former Board Member and Executive Vice-President of video-game giant Activision, he and a partner took control in 1991 and turned the ailing company into the $37 billion market cap video game industry leader, selling millions of games. Howard was also the founder and CEO of Acclaim Games, a publisher of online games that was later sold to The Walt Disney Company. Howard is the 2015 “Treasure of Los Angeles” recipient, awarded for his work to transform Los Angeles into a leading technology city, and a member of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti's technology council. He is bilingual and a triple national of the United States, United Kingdom, and France.
Jason Calacanis is an entrepreneur, angel investor, author and podcaster. Jason is the Founder and CEO of LAUNCH and Inside.com. As a prolific podcaster, Jason hosts All-In alongside Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, and David Friedberg as well as This Week in Startups. Through private funds, the LAUNCH accelerator, and his public angel syndicate, Jason has invested in startups including Uber, Robinhood, Wealthfront, and Trello. Prior, Jason served as general manager of Netscape, Entrepreneur in Action at Sequoia, and founded numerous media companies during the dot-com era including Weblogs and VentureReporter.net.
Frank Rotman is a Founding Partner and the Chief Investment Officer of QED Investors. His investment focus has been on emerging next-generation fintech and proptech companies. Frank was one of the earliest analysts hired into Capital One and he spent almost 13 years building and managing many of the company's business units, credit organizations and operational areas. Frank graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in Applied Mathematics (B.S.) and Systems Engineering (M.S.). He writes prolifically on Twitter as @fintechjunkie and posts additional content frequently on qedinvestors.com and fintechjunkie.com.
Milind Mehere is an award-winning entrepreneur with a track record of building large scalable businesses and creating new product categories. Milind is the Founder and CEO of Yieldstreet, a next-generation digital investment platform reimagining the way wealth is created by providing access to private markets previously reserved only for institutions and the ultra-wealthy. Yieldstreet was named Financial Times's 12th Fastest Growing Company in the US, and for two consecutive years, Yieldstreet was named one of the top 50 Fastest-Growing Companies by Inc. Previously, Milind Co-founded and scaled Yodle (an ad-tech platform for SMBs) to $200M+ in revenue and 1,400 employees. Yodle was ranked four times in the Inc. 500 list and was acquired by Web.com for $342M in 2016. Milind was named an Innovation Fellow at Columbia University's Lang Center, and is an international keynote speaker, having spoken at Forbes, Bloomberg, Cheddar, LendIt, Citi Bank, Goldman, Columbia, and Harvard among others.
Evan Cohen is the co-founder and COO of Vincent and General Partner of VALT Asset Management, an investment advisor focused exclusively on helping clients invest into alternative assets. Prior to Vincent, Evan led investing and blockchain at Indiegogo, where he led more than 100 investment offerings and helped spearhead the first ever real estate security token offering for the Aspen St. Regis hotel. Previously, Evan was a partner at HCVC, an early-stage venture fund focused on full-stack hardware, and has been an active crypto investor since 2016.