Welcome to The Syndicate, the place where investors and startups combine to create crazy businesses and even crazier returns. The Syndicate podcast is a deep dive on the angel investors and VCs behind the big name startups. We interview the best and brightest investors, syndicate leads, GPs, limited partners and startup founders to create an original, off the cuff discussion on startup investing. With a focus on strategies and tactics, mistakes and massive money makers, we hope to help AngelList investors and venture capitalists create unfair advantages in their investment portfolios. Recurring investment themes include Bitcoin & Ethereum, cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, B2B, AI & Automation, Robotics, Big Data, AdTech, Enterprise SaaS, Healthcare, IoT, Fintech, Biotech, Ecommerce and of course Mobile. Other topics include lean startup, marketing strategies, growth hacking, business development, startup equity, fundraising, KPIs, incubators and accelerators, hiring, acquisitions, IPOs, ICOs and more. To date we have had investors from around the globe, NYC, Boston, San Francisco ie SF, Silicon Valley, Berlin, London, Israel, Amsterdam, Singapore, China and more. A bit part of the podcast is exploring the startup ecosystems around the world and helping founders and angels better understand the pros and cons of each major tech hub. And no tech startup podcast would be complete without continual references to the tech giants of today: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Microsoft. These internet era monsters come up time and time in mergers, acquisitions and overall competitive landscape. Other great startup, tech and investing podcasts we recommend checking out include: ThisWeekInStartups with Jason Calacanis, the a16z podcast by Andressen Horowitz, The Pitch from Gimlet Media featuring Josh Muccio, the Twenty Minute VC with Harry Stebbings, ThisWeekInTech with Leo Laporte, The Tim Ferriss Show, Ventured by Kleiner Perkins, Nick Moran's Full Ratchet, YCombinator's Startup School, Ben Thompson's Exponent and Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman. http://thesyndicate.vc The Syndicate itself is a group of accredited angel investors that focus on early stage tech startups with exponential potential and talented entrepreneurs to raise the bar on pre-seed and seed stage investing. We only work with the very best and align ourselves with the founders we invest in to push growth and provide tacticals strategies and intros whenever possible to help our portfolio companies shine. http://thesyndicate.vc/join
Are you a climate or impact startup looking for funding? Are you an investor looking for interesting world-positive companies to invest in? Then let me introduce you to The Startup Tank presented by 4WARD.VC, the ultimate startup investor pitch contest where top climate tech and impact founders pitch to a panel of VCs looking to... The post Announcing The Startup Tank Climate Investor Pitch Podcast appeared first on The Syndicate.
Are you a climate or impact startup looking for funding? Are you an investor looking for interesting world-positive companies to invest in? Welcome to The Startup Tank presented by 4WARD.VC 4WARD.VC angel group, a special Swiss-focused startup pitch competition where founders pitch their project to our investor panel including the Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC),... The post Announcing The Startup Tank Climate Investor Pitch Podcast appeared first on The Syndicate.
Charles Arthur (@CharlesArthur) is a former technology editor of the Guardian and the author of Cyber Wars: Hacks That Shocked the Business World covering some of the world's biggest cyber attacks. He also played a large role in the UK's Free Our Data campaign to persuade the government to make non-personal government data available for free reuse.... The post Objectivity is a Fictitious Thing We Like to Pretend Exists | Charles Arthur appeared first on The Syndicate.
Charlie Hartwell (@ShiftIt_Inst) is an Operating Partner at the Bridge Builders Collaborative, a consumer health tech investment group that invested early in Pear Therapeutics, Insight Timer and Headspace, in addition to being a “Change Agent” focused on igniting consciousness, mindfulness, and creating a more connected human world. In today's episode we discuss: Where are headed with consumer health tech and... The post Investing in Meditation, Mindfulness, Psychedelics for a Better Mental Health Future | Charlie Hartwell appeared first on The Syndicate.
Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) is the best selling science fiction author, blogger, and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing), a contributor to many magazines, websites, and newspapers and a special consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards,... The post REPLAY: Cory Doctorow – Political Fallout of COVID-19, Possible Economic and Healthcare Changes, and Why It's Time for a New Deal to Overcome Late-Stage Capitalism appeared first on The Syndicate.
Tony Parisi (@auradeluxe) is a virtual reality pioneer, serial entrepreneur, and angel investor. He co-created several, 3D graphics standards, is Head of AR/VR Ad Innovation at Unity Technologies, and author several O'Reilly Media books on virtual reality and WebGL. Today, Tony is has a leading spokesman for the immersive industry and was recently named one... The post The Divergence of AR and VR and Connectivity, Collaboration and Entertainment in a Post COVID World | Tony Parisi appeared first on The Syndicate.
Miguel Arias Cañete was the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy and led the EU negotiations of the Paris Agreement. He's now involved with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation which has launched the Prize for Humanity, an annual €1m award for people or organizations from all over the world focused on mitigation of, and adaptation to climate... The post Leading Spain in Paris Accords and Pushing Climate Policy Today | Miguel Arias Cañete appeared first on The Syndicate.
Morten Bove (@mbove) is the founder and CEO of Wohn Homes, a Danish startup revolutionizing modular, eco-friendly affordable housing designed with tokenized ownership for students. Morten also runs Block21, a blockchain-focused tech podcast on the future of decentralization. In today's episode we discuss: How recycled plastic can be used to make sustainable housing Why inequality is the driving factor in... The post Blockchain, Building Recycled Plastic Homes and Redistributing Wealth | Morten Bove appeared first on The Syndicate.
Carinne Chambers-Saini is the founder and CEO of DivaCup, an eco-tech startup focused on making feminine health more sustainable. She's been awarded the EY Entrepreneur of The Year for Sustainable Products and Services, been recognized as one of Canada's 40 under 40, and her company, Diva has ranked 138 on the 2018 GROWTH 500 list and... The post Eco-Friendly B Corps, Dropping Disposables and Building a More Equitable World for All | Carinne Chambers-Saini appeared first on The Syndicate.
Gerald Kutney (@geraldkutney) is a climate scientist, professor, journalist/speaker, author and founder/consultant of 6esm, a C-level consulting firm focused on the bio-economy, renewable energy and the politics of the Kyoto Protocol and others like it. Gerald's a frequent contributor to the HuffingtonPost, Canada's National Observer and is the author of the peer-reviewed: Carbon Politics and... The post Solving the Climate Crisis by Fixing the Politics of Kyoto Protocol and Paris Accords | Gerald Kutney appeared first on The Syndicate.
Chip Meakem is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Tribeca Venture Partners. Prior to co-founding Tribeca, Chip worked at both Kodiak Venture Partners and DFJ Gotham. Previous notable acquired investments include Appnexus, Ingenio and Q-Link. Listen and Learn: How quantum computing will change the world forever What areas Chip sees as the biggest opportunities to invest... The post Venture Bubbles, the Trade War and Tech Investing in the 2020s | Chip Meakem appeared first on The Syndicate.
Andrew Winston is the founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, author of The Big Pivot and Green Recovery, and coauthored Green to Gold, the best-selling guide to what works — and what doesn't — when companies go green. He's a globally recognized expert on green business and has appeared in WSJ, Time, BusinessWeek, NYTimes, and CNBC. His clients... The post Tackling Climate Change With Economic Incentives and Circular Economics | Andrew Winston appeared first on The Syndicate.
Jaya Rao is the co-founder of Molekule, a transformative SF based startup that's raised $38M+ to tackle the clean air problem worldwide, starting in people's homes to promote a healthier future. Prior to Molekule, Jaya focused with Stanford's Public Sector InnovationLabs to work with citizens to redesign public transit. Listen and Learn: The epidemic of air... The post Saving Lives and Stopping Disease Through Clean Air and Startup Innovations | Jaya Rao appeared first on The Syndicate.
Arthur Holland Michel (@writeauthor) is a writer and researcher focused on drones, surveillance, artificial intelligence, robots, the arts, immigration, and movies for topnotch publications like Wired, Vice, The Verge, Fast Company, Motherboard, Al Jazeera America, U.S. News and more. Arthur's the author of EYES IN THE SKY, about the rise of advanced aerial surveillance technology... The post Eyes in the Sky Surveillance, Drone Warfare and the Future of Freedom | Arthur Holland Michel appeared first on The Syndicate.
Nikolas Badminton is a world-respected futurist speaker, author, and researcher. He wows audiences with keynote speeches on the impact of exponential technologies including: Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality; Work Productivity; The Sharing Economy; Autonomous Transportation; Smart Cities; Education; The Future of AI integrated with Life and Business; and Predictions for humanity from 2017 to 2030, and... The post Coal is Dead, Climate Change is Real, and Bezos and Alexa for President | Nikolas Badminton appeared first on The Syndicate.
Dr. Ayesha Khanna is Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions firm and incubator that was named one of 4 top AI companies in Asia. She has been a strategic advisor on artificial intelligence, smart cities, and fintech to leading corporations and governments and serves on the Board of Infocomm Media Development... The post Smart Cities that Function Like Startups and Ayesha Khanna appeared first on The Syndicate.
David Orban is an entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker and the Founder and Managing Partner of Network Society Ventures, a seed stage global investment firm focused on innovative startups at the intersection of exponential technologies and decentralized networks. An early adopter of blockchain and an active Bitcoin investor since 2010, he was the first to own Ether... The post Blockchain, Isolationism, Space Exploration and the Future of Nations | David Orban of Singularity University appeared first on The Syndicate.
David Cuartielles is the co-founder and co-creator of Arduino the open hardware platform Arduino, which has become a leading platform for DIY electronics and which earned the team an Honorary Mention at the Ars Electronica Digital Community Prix 2006, the SER price 2015, the FIUM price 2017, and an Ashoka Fellowship 2017, among others. David's work spans... The post Arduino Co-founder David Cuartielles on the Open Source Movement and Future of Education appeared first on The Syndicate.
Eric O'Neill is an accomplished speaker, security expert and author that presents keynotes about espionage and national security, cybersecurity, fraud, corporate diligence and defense, hacking, pursuing one's dreams and surviving Hollywood. Eric has worked as an FBI counterterrorism and counterintelligence operative, a national security attorney, as a corporate security consultant and founded The Georgetown Group, a... The post Catching the Most Notorious Spy in US History and Why James Bond's Just a Hacker | Eric O'Neill appeared first on The Syndicate.
Prosanta Chakrabarty is a systematist and an ichthyologist studying the evolution and biogeography of both freshwater and marine fishes. His work includes studies of Neotropical (Central and South America, Caribbean) and Indo-West Pacific (Indian and Western Pacific Ocean) fishes. Prosanta is an Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes at the Museum of Natural Science and Department... The post Designer Babies, Reviving the Neanderthals and Funding Fundamental Science | Prosanta Chakrabarty appeared first on The Syndicate.
Derek Sivers is a serial entrepreneur, blogger, author and musician who revolutionized the music industry pre-Spotify with CDbaby, the largest online distributor of independent music which he founded accidentally sold in 2008 for $22 million. Before that, he donated the company to a charity to fund public music education. Derek also created a viral TED talk... The post Derek Sivers on Minimalism, Mastery and Avoiding New Technology appeared first on The Syndicate.
Andrew Hessel is the CEO of Humane Genomics Inc., a seed-stage company developing virus-based therapies for cancer, starting with dogs and also co-founded the Genome Project-write, an international scientific effort working to engineer large genomes, including the human genome. Andy has been Singularity University faculty since 2009 and from 2012-2017 was the Distinguished Researcher at Autodesk Life... The post Programming Life, Preventing Bioterrorism and Viruses that Kill Cancer | Andrew Hessel appeared first on The Syndicate.
David Heinemeier Hansson is the creator of Ruby on Rails, co-founder and CTO at Basecamp (formerly 37Signals), and the best-selling co-author of Rework and Remote: Office Not Required. He's blogged the past two decades at Signal v Noise, been featured on the Tim Ferriss Show, and if that wasn't enough, DHH is a Le Mans & WEC... The post David Heinemeier Hansson Uncensored on Healthcare, Privacy, Education and Inequality appeared first on The Syndicate.
Polina Chebotareva is a co-founder of Cambridge Companies SPG, a social mission-oriented VC firm on fixing nutrition, farming, and health worldwide. Prior to Cambridge, Polina was an Executive VP and Partner at a real estate investment firm with $350M Equity AUM. She is a Board Member for The Laguna Art Museum, helps raise awareness and funding... The post Creating Healthy Consumer Brands to Feed Humanity and Solve Climate Change | Filipp Chebotarev and Polina Chebotareva appeared first on The Syndicate.
Sean Gourley is a physicist, founder and CEO of AI company, Primer, an expert on the mathematics of war, TED Fellow, speaker and political advisor. Before that, he was CTO and co-founder of Quid, an augmented-intelligence company and also worked on self-repairing nano-circuits at NASA. Sean was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford focused on complex systems... The post The Mathematics of War and Future of US-China Relations, Plus AI, Automation and Mutually Assured Destruction | Sean Gourley appeared first on The Syndicate.
Geoff Colvin (@geoffcolvin) is FortuneMagazine's Senior Editor-at-Large, an award-winning thinker, author, broadcaster, and speaker on the most significant trends and issues impacting business, politics and the economy. Geoff's work has earned him millions of loyal fans and 7M weekly listeners on CBS Radio Network He's the author of four books including groundbreaking bestsellers Talent Is Overrated: What Really... The post Why the US and China are Already in a Cold War, the Economics of Inequality and Future of Capitalism | Geoff Colvin appeared first on The Syndicate.
August Bradley is a futurist business consultant, founder/host of the Mind & Machine podcast and former COO of the pioneering virtual reality company Kite & Lightning. August's worked with brands including Coke, Xbox, Kia, Gap, J.Crew, Banana Republic, Fisker Automotive, and many more. He is also a Board Member & Director of the AI & Machine... The post AI, VR and a World Without Privacy as We Explore the Cosmos and What it Means to be Human | August Bradley of Mind & Machine appeared first on The Syndicate.
Russell Gold is an author and award-winning investigative journalist and energy reporter at The Wall Street Journal best known for covering the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. They were awarded the Gerald Loeb Award for best business story of the year and were finalists for the Pulitzer. He's the author of The Boom: How Fracking... The post Energy, Infrastructure, Fracking and the Future of Journalism | Russell Gold appeared first on The Syndicate.
Jarrett Walker is an international public transit network design and policy consultant and the author of popular public transit blog HumanTransit.org, and the book Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. This book is a friendly, non-technical introduction to transit's underlying geometry and the real value judgments that... The post Elon Musk's Wrong, Driverless Cars Make Things Worse and Buses are the Future of Transportation | Jarrett Walker appeared first on The Syndicate.
Andy Rachleff is the co-founder and Executive Chairman (prev CEO) of Wealthfront, an automated investment service startup to provide wealth advisor-like management to everyday folks. Andy co-founded Benchmark Capital in 1995 (one of the most successful venture capital firms of all time) and was a general partner until 2004. Prior to Benchmark, he was a GP... The post Andy Rachleff on Founding Benchmark, Wealthfront and Fixing F'ed Up Finance Industry with Big Data appeared first on The Syndicate.
Paul Shapiro is the bestselling author of Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, the CEO and co-founder of The Better Meat Co., a four-time TEDx speaker, the co-host of the Business for Good Podcast, and a long-time leader in food sustainability. He's been interviewed by hundreds of news outlets... The post Moving Beyond Meat, Burning Down The Amazon and Business for Good | Paul Shapiro appeared first on The Syndicate.
Neal Gorenflo is the co-founder of Shareable, award-winning news, action, connection hub for the grassroots sharing transformation. Neal's worked with startups like P2P asset sharing platform Moogul.com, an online DVD exchange, a spinout of Cisco's corporate asset sharing platform, and Divvy.com. He co-organized The Abundance League monthly salons in SF between 2005 and 2010, consulted with... The post How Sharing Cities Saves the World From Destructive Big Tech Capitalism and Libertarianism | Neal Gorenflo appeared first on The Syndicate.
Jim Pugh (@dr_pugh) is a co-founder of the Universal Income Project, a fiscally sponsored organization focused on raising awareness and support for UBI. Jim's also the founder and CEO of ShareProgress, a social-good startup that helps progressive organizations use the power of data and technology to grow their base and win their campaigns. He previously served as... The post How Universal Basic Income Makes Us Richer, How to Pay for It and Why Our Economy is in Trouble | Jim Pugh appeared first on The Syndicate.
Robin Chase is the founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world; Buzzcar, a carsharing marketplace in France; and GoLoco, an online ridesharing community as well as co-founder of Veniam, a company that moves TBs of data between vehicles and cloud. Her recent book is Peers Inc: How People and Platforms... The post Zipcar Founder Robin Chase on Lessons Learned Inventing Ridesharing Almost a Decade Before Uber and What It Means for Future of Urban Transportation appeared first on The Syndicate.
Tae Hea Nahm is co-founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures and co-author of Survival To Thrival. Survival to Thrival is a mind-meld of a 3x entrepreneur (Bob Tinker) and a VC/board member (TH Nahm), and other enterprise entrepreneurs, which demystifies building enterprise startups. Tae Hea was the founding CEO of Airespace, later sold to Cisco for $450m. Currently,... The post Product and Go To Market Fit, Funding Milestones and Enterprise SaaS with Tae Hea Nahm of Storm Ventures appeared first on The Syndicate.
Jonathan Levi is an experienced entrepreneur, angel investor, superlearner and lifehacker from Silicon Valley. He runs the SuperHuman Academy Podcast (3M+ downloads) and since 2014, has was one of the top instructors (over 60k students) on Udemy, with his course Become a SuperLearner® (now retired), in addition to his Masterclass course. In addition to his own... The post Psychedelics, Superhuman Memory and Evolving Education as We Head Towards Jobless Future | Jonathan Levi of SuperHuman Academy appeared first on The Syndicate.
Nick Thompson is the editor-in-chief of WIRED, the 5th since its founding. Under his leadership, WIRED has broken massive stories about Facebook, cyber-warfare, the Robert Mueller investigation, and numerous other topics. Prior to WIRED, he was the editor of newyorker.com. Nick is also a co-founder of The Atavist, a software company and National Magazine Award-winning digital... The post WIRED Editor Nick Thompson on Free Speech, Fake News, Regulating Big Tech and Coming Cold War with China appeared first on The Syndicate.
Bruce Friedrich is co-founder and executive director of The Good Food Institute (@GoodFoodInst), a nonprofit that promotes plant, dairy, and eggs-based meats as well as clean meat (also known as cultured meat and cell-based meat), as alternatives to the products of conventional animal agriculture. Bruce is a TED Fellow (whose TED Talk has been viewed over... The post How to Have Your Meat and Eat It Too While Combatting Climate Change | Bruce Friedrich appeared first on The Syndicate.
James Maskell is the founder of Functional Forum, the world's largest integrative medicine conference and KNEW Health, a transformation alternative health-sharing insurance model. He's health advocate and entrepreneur, that's spent a decade encouraging a shift from conventional western medicine toward a wellness-centered, functional medicine model—starting with the doctors themselves. He's also the founder of the Evolution≠... The post How Functional Medicine and Community Health Insurance Cure Chronic Disease, Increase Longevity and Save Money | James Maskell appeared first on The Syndicate.
Galit Ariel is a transdisciplinary creative and strategic thinker and self-defined Digital Hippie, very focused on augmented reality and experiential tech. Her book Augmenting Alice – The Future of Identity, Experience and Reality explores the manner in which Augmented Reality's diffusion will shift cultural and functional paradigms and redefine core concepts related to culture, space, experience... The post Augmented Reality, Automation and Life After Move Fast and Break Things | Galit Ariel appeared first on The Syndicate.
Nir Eyal (@nireyal) is a writer, entrepreneur, teacher and investor focused on the intersection of psychology, technology, and business MIT's Technology Review dubbed “The Prophet of Habit-Forming Technology.” Nir founded two tech companies since 2003 and has taught at the Stanford Grad School of Business and Institute of Design and is the author of the... The post Thinking Outside the Venture Box – Legal Insight from The Big Short Plus Newer Blockchain Based Funds with Jonathan Nelson Hackers and Founders appeared first on The Syndicate.
Abe Cambridge is a serial energy entrepreneur who establishes businesses and projects around the world that use solar energy to bring about out major socio-economic shifts. In 2010, he pioneered utility-scale solar in Britain and in 2012 one of his businesses, The Renewable Energy Co-operative, was nominated ‘International Co-operative of The Year' in the United Nations... The post Why Blockchain and Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency Threaten Governments and What a Decentralized Renewable Energy Future Looks Like | Abe Cambridge appeared first on The Syndicate.
Richard Brion is the founder of Revolution Agriculture—a patent-pending solution to the food security challenge—and an ex-US Navy officer focused on making farming more adaptable to a climate change-driven world with less resource 60% less water, faster production, and higher yields. He's the winner of the USAID & Humanity United Tech Challenge to Prevent Mass Atrocity,... The post The Failed Drug War, Unintended Consequences and Future of Sustainable Agriculture | Richard Brion appeared first on The Syndicate.
Paul Root Wolpe is the Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics, a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Biological Behavior, and Sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University and spent 15 years as Senior Bioethicist at NASA and is now their first Chief of... The post The Bioethics of Engineering Superhuman CRISPR Babies, Cloning and Bringing Back the T-Rex | Paul Root Wolpe appeared first on The Syndicate.
Frans von der Dunk is a Professor of Space Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Director of Black Holes Consultancy, and is generally recognized as one of the world's leading space law experts. Franz has served as an adviser to a number of governments, the European Commission, ESA, the United Nations, the OECD, various national space... The post Space Law, Piracy, Profit and Militarization in Age of Star Wars | Frans von der Dunk appeared first on The Syndicate.