Podcasts about 3bn

In this episode of Riding Unicorns, we're joined by Carles Reina, Go-to-Market Lead at ElevenLabs, an AI Audio research and deployment company that tripled it's valuation to $3.3BN in January, after confirming a new $180M funding round. From starting out as a banker in Barcelona to scaling Uber's first European team, and now investing in over 70 startups, Carles shares the hard-won lessons that drive startup success.We dive into:

Wall Street recorded a flat session following Moody's downgrade of the US's credit rating after market close on Friday. US indices dropped at open but recovered by the end of session. S&P 500 up 0.09%, NASDAQ up 0.02%. Dow up 137 points. Ended near high. Mostly positive sector performance. Healthcare best performing sector. Novarax (+15%) boosted sector as received FDA approval for Covid vaccine. Utilities second best performer. Other defensives did well too. Materials and Industrials both up. Energy worst performing sector by over 1%. Moody's downgrade renewed global growth concerns. Cyclicals also showing weakness. Tesla (-2.3%) dragged sector down. Barron's report from over weekend showed Chinese sales fell about 25% in April and first half of May. Market reacted negatively to AMD (-2.1%) selling recently acquired ZT Systems' server-manufacturing business to Sanmina for $3Bn. Microsoft up 1.0% after offering its data centres to various AI companies while announcing new AI tool for coding. Resources mixed. Weaker dollar benefitted oil, copper, tin. But many base metals fell on weak Chinese data. Iron ore, Aluminium both down.ASX to rise. SPI futures up 73 points (+0.88%).Want to invest with Marcus Today? The Managed Strategy Portfolio is designed for investors seeking exposure to our strategy while we do the hard work for you. If you're looking for personal financial advice, our friends at Clime Investment Management can help. Their team of licensed advisers operates across most states, offering tailored financial planning services.  Why not sign up for a free trial? Gain access to expert insights, research, and analysis to become a better investor.

This week, Fred Mills and Liam Marsh dig into The B1M's video on Greece's $3BN new metro system.Later in the episode, we cover:China's new Zaha Hadid-designed sports centreAthens' major airport expansionWe end the show with a message from Jason Methfessel. Get in touch! Podcast@TheB1M.comwww.TheB1M.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to dive deeper into topics like this? Master your journey with Physician Empowerment's Masterclass Membership—your gateway to exclusive content, expert-led sessions, and actionable strategies to elevate your personal and financial well-being. Learn more and join us today! https://www.physempowerment.ca/masterclass—In this episode, Dr. Wing Lim talks with financing expert Gaurav Sobti about the real estate investment financing landscape. They explain the differences between residential and commercial financing, heading into a deeper exploration of the complexities involved in financing the different types of real estate. Wing and Gaurav's discussion highlights the variety of lenders beyond traditional banks, including credit unions, insurance companies, and non-bank lenders. They also explore the complexities of commercial lending and the role of personal and group guarantees. A major topic covered is the CMHC Select program, a government initiative to encourage multifamily housing development through favorable loan terms. The program aims to promote affordability, accessibility, and energy efficiency in housing. Wing and Gaurav talk about how this initiative has significantly impacted the real estate market, making multifamily investing more attractive and accessible. They also examine market volatility, interest rate trends, and the importance of working with knowledgeable professionals in financing. This episode serves as a guide for Canadian investors looking to strategically navigate the real estate lending process.About Gaurav Sobti, CPA, CA, CFA: Gaurav Sobti has 10+ years of financial services experience across real estate, investments, finance and accounting.Gaurav's most recent formal role was with a national real estate finance firm where he was responsible for originating and underwriting commercial mortgage transactions with a specialty on CMHC-insured (multi-family) financing. Prior to that, he spent 4+ years at a private investment fund which had a mortgage investment fund. Prior to that, Gaurav worked at Alberta Teacher's Retirement Fund Board on the private investments team focused on private equity transactions. Gaurav was part of a top-performing team that managed a $3Bn institutional grade portfolio. Gaurav started his career at Deloitte, one of the largest accounting/advisory firms in Canada and worldwide.By training, Gaurav is a designated CPA, CA and CFA Charter holder. Gaurav is a licensed mortgage associate.Gaurav Sobti on LinkedInCreate Commercial Mortgage Services__Physician Empowerment: Attend an upcoming Empowerment RetreatJoin the Physician Empowerment Masterclass nowWebsite: PhysEmpowerment.ca

On this episode Pat sits down with Jimena Prado, Partner at Latin American VC firm Hi Ventures, which has backed the likes of Cornershop and Fintual. We explore Jimena's journey from one of the first female founders in Mexico to becoming an investor, how she thinks about navigating the current AI craze and where LatAm entrepreneurs can play at and capture value. Hi Ventures is one of the leading early stage funds in LatAm, having backed the likes of Cornershop (exited to Uber at 3Bn), Sequoia backed Fintual and Clau.com. Founded by Federico Antoni, it has raised more than US$170M over 4 vintages. We dive into: - How to filter through the AI noise and where LatAm entrepreneurs play in the space - Transitioning from founder to funder - How Hi Ventures has formulated their investment thesis around AI You can find Jimena on LinkedIn here. Want to stay up-to-date on latest episodes? Follow The Enthusiast wherever you are getting your podcasts and make sure to check out our newsletter on LinkedIn ⁠here⁠ to stay up to date on our latest episodes with founders and investors beyond the Valley. Follow Pat on LinkedIn ⁠here⁠.

Karri Saarinen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Linear. The company has raised from some of the best in the business including Sequoia and Accel. Before founding Linear, Karri was the principal designer at Airbnb and the founding designer at Coinbase.  10 Lessons with One of Silicon Valley's Most In-Demand Founders: How to Become a Master Fundraiser: Why does Karri believe it is BS advice that founders should “always be raising”? What is Karri's biggest advice to founders on minimising dilution? What do most founders think they know about fundraising but do not? What is the best way to put your VCs to work? How can you give them homework to do? What has been the single best VC meeting Karri has had? What has been the worst VC meeting? Product and Growth: What does Karri mean when he says “founder must focus on quality growth over hypergrowth?” How does Karri advise founders on how soon to release and monetise their first product? Wait for platform ready or ship more feature products and monetise? What have been the single biggest product lessons for Karri from Airbnb and Coinbase? What are the most commons ways that growth plateaus? What breaks first? Karri AMA: Brian Armstrong or Brian Chesky; who would you invest in first? Would you sell Linear today for $3BN in cash? What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started? What did you believe that you now no longer believe?  

The Bitcoin Brief is a show hosted by Max and Bitcoin QnA. We cover important updates in the world of bitcoin and open source software. It is our imperative to provide some education along the way too, so that the misfits can expand their knowledge base and become more sovereign as a result. We do this every second week to keep our listeners informed without having to dedicate hours every day to keep on top of developments. We break things down in a simple and fun way and we welcome questions or topic suggestions via Podcasting 2.0 boosts.SHOW DETAILSAOBMax start9 not ded?Q treats himselfTelegram scam reminderNEWSCSW at it againTD bank $3BN file for MLUPDATES/RELEASESPassport v2.3.5Bitcoin core v0.28Zeus v0.9.1 main releasePhoenix Android v2.4.1Phoenix v2.4.0 (both)Stack Duo v1.2.3BitAxe v2.3.0Cake Pay Web now supports LNLightning welderGITHUB REPO THAT Q MENTIONED IN REGARDS TO DOJO:https://github.com/Dojo-Open-Source-Project/samourai-dojoSUPPORT PAVEL'S (DOJOCODER) WORK ON DOJOhttps://x.com/PavelTheCoder/status/1844094610341261523SPONSORSFOUNDATIONhttps://foundation.xyz/ungovernableFoundation builds Bitcoin-centric tools that empower you to reclaim your digital sovereignty.As a sovereign computing company, Foundation is the antithesis of today's tech conglomerates. Returning to cypherpunk principles, they build open source technology that “can't be evil”.Thank you Foundation Devices for sponsoring the show!Use code: Ungovernable for $10 off of your purchaseCAKE WALLEThttps://cakewallet.comCake Wallet is an open-source, non-custodial wallet available on Android, iOS, macOS, and Linux.Features:- Built-in Exchange: Swap easily between Bitcoin and Monero.- User-Friendly: Simple interface for all users.Monero Users:- Batch Transactions: Send multiple payments at once.- Faster Syncing: Optimized syncing via specified restore heights- Proxy Support: Enhance privacy with proxy node options.Bitcoin Users:- Coin Control: Manage your transactions effectively.- Silent Payments: Static bitcoin addresses- Batch Transactions: Streamline your payment process.Thank you Cake Wallet for sponsoring the show!VALUE FOR VALUEThanks for listening you Ungovernable Misfits, we appreciate your continued support and hope you enjoy the shows.You can support this episode using your time, talent or treasure.TIME:- create fountain clips for the show- create a meetup- help boost the signal on social mediaTALENT:- create ungovernable misfit inspired art, animation or music- design or implement some software that can make the podcast better- use whatever talents you have to make a contribution to the show!TREASURE:- BOOST IT OR STREAM SATS on the Podcasting 2.0 apps @ https://podcastapps.com- DONATE via Paynym @ https://paynym.is/+maxbuybit- DONATE via Monero @ https://xmrchat.com/ugmf- BUY SOME CLOTHING @ https://ungovernablemisfits.com/store/- BUY SOME ART!! @ https://ungovernablemisfits.com/art-gallery/(00:00:00) INTRO(00:00:57) THANK YOU FOUNDATION(00:01:53) THANK YOU CAKE WALLET(00:03:06) Don't Skip Leg Day(00:06:31) THE START9 LIVES(00:12:36) Treat Yo'self(00:20:19) Look Out for Telegram Scams!(00:24:31) NEWS(00:24:33) Craig Wright's NEW Lawsuit(00:28:51) TD Pays a 3 Billion Dollar Fine(00:33:00) BOOSTS(00:47:18) Node Recommendations to Bill(00:53:00) UPDATES & RELEASES(00:53:05) PASSPORT Does Some House Cleaning(00:56:46) CORE Adds Testnet 4(00:57:48) ZEUS Adds Blinded BOLT 11 Paths(00:58:34) PHOENIX Patches an On-The-Fly Funding Bug(00:58:51) PHOENIX Integrates Their ACINQ LSP Protocol(01:00:03) Stack Wallet Fine Tunes Duo in v1.2.3(01:00:35) FROST Bounty Freezes Over(01:02:14) BITAXE Firmware Upgrade v2.3.0(01:02:57) CakePay Web Supports LN(01:04:38) Woah...Lightning Welder(01:06:10) QUESTIONS(01:06:18) Upgrading a Dojo to 2TB(01:07:38) Have You Covered Joinstr?(01:10:02) "Mixing Coins" Best Practices(01:16:05) The Future of "Decentralized Mining"(01:16:27) Any Privacy Problems With AlbyHub?(01:19:50) Does Q Record Naked?(01:21:21) I Need a Node for Ashigaru!(01:23:02) Coin Consolidations(01:28:52) I Got a Toothache, Adios Mate

Eiso Kant is the Co-Founder and CTO of Poolside.ai, building next-generation AI for software engineering. Just last week, Poolside announced their $500M Series B valuing the company at $3BN. Prior to Poolside, Eiso founded Athenian, a data-enabled engineering platform. Before that, he built source{d} - the world's first company dedicated to applying AI to code and software. 1. Raising $600M to Compete in the AGI Race: What is Poolside? How does Poolside differentiate from other general-purpose LLMs? How much of Poolside's latest raise will be spent on compute? How does Eiso feel about large corporates being a large part of startup LLM provider's funding rounds?  Why did Poolside choose to only accept investment from Nvidia? Is $600M really enough to compete with the mega war chests of other LLMs? 2. The Big Questions in AI: Will scaling laws continue? Have we reached a stage of diminishing returns in model performance for LLMs? What is the biggest barrier to the continued improvement in model performance; data, algorithms or compute? To what extent will Nvidia's Blackwell chip create a step function improvement in performance? What will OpenAI's GPT5 need to have to be a gamechanger once again? 3. Compute, Chips and Cash: Does Eiso agree with Larry Ellison; “you need $100BN to play the foundation model game”? What does Eiso believe is the minimum entry price? Will we see the continuing monopoly of Nvidia? How does Eiso expect the compute landscape to evolve? Why are Amazon and Google best placed when it comes to reducing cost through their own chip manufacturing?  Does Eiso agree with David Cahn @ Sequoia, “you will never train a frontier model on the same data centre twice”?  Can the speed of data centre establishment and development keep up with the speed of foundation model development? 4. WTF Happens to The Model Layer: OpenAI and Anthropic… Does Eiso agree we are seeing foundation models become commoditised? What would Eiso do if he were Sam Altman today? Is $6.6BN really enough for OpenAI to compete against Google, Meta etc…? OpenAI at $150BN, Anthropic at $40BN and X.ai at $24BN. Which would Eiso choose to buy and why?  

Send us a Text Message.In this episode, I sit down with Andrew Endicott, who's my co-founder at Gilgamesh Ventures and who also previously built Petal, a New York fintech company.Andrew and I discussed a research report we recently published in collaboration with the Wharton School of Business. We examined the incredible impact that 15 leading fintech companies are having on the broader fintech ecosystem by helping train the next generation of founders in fintech and tech in the Americas.Some of our interesting findings, include:These 15 companies have spawned almost 2,600 founders in the Americas, 12% of which left to build fintech companies, while others are building in AI, SaaS, HealthTech, and beyond.The founders building in fintech have raised $4.3Bn collectively. With Square, Zillow, and SoFi alumni representing 60% of this total.Product and engineering leaders represent 50% of all fintech founders.And 48% of the founders we studied launched their fintech companies in 2022 and 2023.For more details, please visit our website or the Fintech Leaders newsletter.Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~70,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Jason Lemkin is one of the OG SaaS investors with all of his first five investments turning into unicorns with Pipedrive, Algolia, Talkdesk, Salesloft and RevenueCat all in his portfolio. SaaStr is the largest global community in SaaS and he has taught a generation the fundamentals of SaaS on saastr.com. In Our Second Episode of This Week in SaaS: 1. Wiz Rejects Google's $23BN Acquisition Offer: How does Jason analyse the price of the offer? $23BN for a $500M ARR business growing 120% YoY? What is the reasoning for Google in pursuing the acquisition? If Wiz had of proceeded in the process, what are the chances it would have made it through regulators? Why did Wiz walk away from the offer? If Jason were on the board, what would he have done? Is there a correlation between the downfall of Crowdstrike and Wiz turning down the offer? What does this mean for the M&A market moving forward? Will there be a secondary round now in place for Wiz at $23BN? 2. Crowdstrike: WTF Happens from Here: Did Crowdstrike manage the crisis in the right way? What would Jason have done differently? What is the bull case for Crowdstrike moving forward from this point? What are the bear case for the company? Could this snowball and be the end? What will this do to company requirements on having single point of failure solutions? Where will the market cap of Crowdstrike be at the end of 2024? 3. LegalTech: Show Me the Money: $1BN in a Single Day: Clio announced a $900M round at a $3BN valuation. How does Jason analyse this? What does Jason make of Harvey's $100M raise at a $1.5BN valuation? Why does Jason think 2025 will be the year for AI parity? Why will we see the majority of SaaS features be commoditised in 2025? What is the single biggest regret that Jason has in his investing career?

Pedro Franceschi is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Brex, the AI-powered spend platform with tens of thousands of customers, including DoorDash, Coinbase, Robinhood and Roblox. Pedro has raised over $1.2BN for the company from the likes of Greenoaks, Ribbit, DST, Bond and YC. The latest reported valuation was $12.3BN. Before Brex, Pedro was the first person to “jailbreak” the iPhone 3G in Brazil and co-founded payments company Pagar.me with Dubugras when he was 15. In three years, Pedro scaled it to over 100 people and US$1.5 billion in transactions processed. In Today's Episode with Pedro Franceschi We Discuss: 1. The Challenge is in Your Own Head: Why does Pedro believe all founders underestimate their own mental health? When was Pedro most anxious/depressed in the Brex journey? Why? What have been the single biggest needle movers for increasing his own mental health? How does Pedro advise other founders struggling with their own mental health? 2. From a 13-Year-Old Hacker in Brazil to Billionaire in LA: How did Pedro come to make $200K on the internet when he was just 12? Does Pedro agree that the best founders always started entrepreneurial pursuits young? How does Pedro reflect on his own relationship to money today? How has it changed? Pedro has famously taken large secondaries, how did that impact his mindset? How does Pedro advise other founders and VCs when it comes to secondaries? 3. The Importance of the Idea: What Everyone Misunderstands: What does Pedro mean when he says everyone does not appreciate enough how important the idea selection process is? How does he advise founders entering this process? Why does Pedro believe it is not that easy for founder to just pivot to a new idea? How did YC almost miss out on investing in Brex, now a $12BN company, due to the original idea? 4. Brex vs Ramp: Who Wins: How does Pedro feel when I say, "Ramp have gotten ahead on marketing and visibility"? Why does Pedro believe that "Ramp is a marketing company"? What does he mean when he says "great products will win over time"? Why does Pedro fundamentally disagree with Ramp's positioning of the best companies focus on saving and their giving away their software for free? How does this market play out over time? Winner take all or gains split across several?  

Ara Mahdessian is the Co-Founder and CEO @ ServiceTitan, one of the great vertical SaaS business of the last decade. Today the company powers over 11,800 trade customers and has raised over $1.4BN from some of the best including Bessemer, Battery, Index, ICONIQ and more. Their latest valuation pegged the business at a reported $7.3BN. In Today's Episode with Ara Mahdessian We Discuss: 1. The $7BN Company That Did Not Want To Raise VC Money: Why did Ara not want to raise VC funding in the early days? What convinced Ara to change his mind? Why did he choose Byron and Bessemer? Does Ara believe that ServiceTitan would have been the success that it is, if it had raised in today's market, a $5M on $25M seed round? What would they have done differently? 2. How to Master Going Upmarket: What are Ara's biggest lessons on what it takes to go upmarket? How does the product need to change? How does the org of the company change? When is the right time to go upmarket? What did ServiceTitan get wrong in their move into enterprise? What did Ara learn from this? 3. How to Build a Brand in SaaS and Have Premium Pricing: What are some of Ara's biggest lessons in how to build the best brand in vertical SaaS? What works in brand building in SaaS? What does not? What would he do differently? What have been Ara's biggest lessons on pricing? ServiceTitan is 3x their competitors, how does Ara think about what is required to have such premium pricing? 4. How to Master the Second Product & Be the Best at Customer Success: When is the right time to do a second product? Why is it too late to wait for PMF with your first product to do the second product? What product did ServiceTitan wait too long to release? What did they learn? What product did they release too early? What did they learn? What are the two core reasons why customer success is the most important element in a business? 5. The Core Pillars of Great Leadership: Why do product builder founders have such an increased chance of success in startups? Why do you have to have expertise in the domain you are hiring for to hire the best? What does truly great leadership mean to Ara today? How has his style of leadership changed? What has Ara learned from soccer that he has applied to being a CEO?  

This episode focuses on the newly relaunched Carter's Rewards - the loyalty programme of a $3Bn children's apparel retail business. The successful relaunch lowered customer thresholds, added tiers, and accelerated its personalization strategy.With Kevin Severs, the Director of Retention for Carter's. Kevin is a seasoned Director with 18 years of marketing experience spanning retail, CPG, automotive, and consulting. Previously, he was a Director of E-commerce at Hertz and spent nearly a decade CPG consulting with General Mills and working in brand management at Procter & Gamble.Today we will be learning about Kevin's favourite loyalty programmes, how Carter's Rewards is building real customer engagement and all about their plans for the future.Show notes:1) Kevin Severs2) Carter's Rewards3) Carters Inc.

 Failed government planning, not expats, are Kuwait's main problem, says a politician, while Saudi and Kuwait have reopened talks about a high speed train between the two countries, emerging economies will receive $903BN inflows, Dubai's real estate sector saw $4.3BN in transactions, the Saudis wants Wall Street to come to them, and Instagram under fire for locking out Palestinian journalist Motaz Azaiza

We reveal the UAE businesses damaged by rain, Binance's Dubai crypto license, Neom mulling a $1.3BN bond, and the kingdom's newest airline linked to Africa. Plus, boycotts shut down a KFC branch 24 hours after opening in Algeria.

Matthew Sweeney, CFA, Managing Partner & Portfolio Manager of Laughing Water Capital stops by The Business Brew for a laid back conversation about how he approaching investing. Laughing Water Capital tends to focus on smaller companies in an effort to find overlooked opportunities. In the episode, Matt talks about his idea of "value," how he got started in the business, and why he prefers stocks with smaller ($500mm-$3Bn) market capitalizations. We hope you enjoy the episode. Sponsor Info: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time.  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team's idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa's⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click. Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team's speed to differentiated insight.

On this month's episode of The Missing Link, we're joined by Sidney Powell. Sid is the CEO & Co-Founder of Maple, and with his Co-Founder Joe Flanagan, launched Maple in 2021. Maple is transforming capital markets through technology having facilitated over $3b in loans since launch in 2021. During Sid's career in traditional finance, he participated in $3BN+ of corporate bond issuance, established and ran a $200M+ bond funding program, and managed Treasury at a commercial lending FinTech company. During the episode, Sid breaks down the web2 finance space as a tax on global gdp, the past and future of Maple, AI underwriting, and his opinion on a two-tiered missing link. Check it out! This podcast does not contain any financial or legal advice and you should not seek to rely on it as such. Opinions are the personal opinions of the speaker. The Missing Link is a podcast produced by Nayms, our partner in the Searching for Mana podcast. Nayms: https://nayms.com Mana: https://searchingformana.com Like this episode and subscribe to this channel if our content helped and inspired you! See you in our next episode! ___________________________________________ Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/2Hhg4gB​​ Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3kKZQKl Searching for Mana is a UK-based podcast which focuses on tech innovation in finance, and features interviews with influencers, leaders and founders in the fintech space, from unicorn companies to financial disruptors. Previous guests have included the Director of Growth at Oaknorth, the CEO of BCB Group (the UK's first licensed crypto bank), the CEO of Innovate Finance (the industry body for UK fintech) and Ed Vaizey, the UK's longest serving Minister for Technology. Each hour-long episode gains insight into how the guest got into fintech, what they're currently focused on, what their companies are all about, as well as some of the important trends within the wider fintech sector. The show is presented by Lloyd Wahed, a London-born tech entrepreneur who has founded two recruiting firms, Athelstan Search and Mana Search and has successfully helped scale a number of unicorn technology companies. Follow Mana Search on Twitter: https://twitter.com/manasearchuk​​ Follow Mana Search on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mana-talent/

Christian Hecker is the Founder and CEO of Trade Republic, the company making it easy and inexpensive for everyone with a smartphone to invest. To date, Christian has raised over $1.3BN for the company from the likes of Sequoia, Founders Fund, Accel and Creandum to name a few. Previously, Christian worked in Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Investment Banking department. Johan Brenner is a General Partner at Creandum. Johan has led Creandum's investments in iZettle (acquired by PayPal for $2.2bn in 2018), Trade Republic, Klarna, Pleo, Neo4J, Vivino and more. Johan was previously a repeat entrepreneur, founding one of the first online brokers in Europe in 1997 (sold to E*TRADE in the US), then JobLine (sold to Monster), Bookatable (Michelin) and Tradera (Ebay). In Today's Episode with Christian Hecker and Johan Brenner We Discuss: 1. Selling 75% of Trade Republic for €600,000: How did Christian come to sell 75% of Trade Republic for €600K? How did Johan and Creandum solve this challenge when they invested? What are some of Christian's biggest pieces of advice on cap table construction? 2. Raising $1.3BN From the Best Investors in the World: What are Christian's biggest fundraising lessons from raising $1.3BN from the best in the world? How did Doug Leone and Sequoia come to lead Trade Republic's round? What was the meeting with Doug like? What questions did he ask? How did it go? How important of a skill does Johan believe being a great fundraiser is for founders? 3. Scaling into Europe's Next Decacorn: What are the single biggest issues that arise when scaling so fast? What breaks first? Does CAC increase with time or decrease? Why did Christian decide to stop paid marketing on Google and Facebook and stop spending $100M+ there overnight? Why is Christian so bullish on influencer marketing? What works? What does not work? 4. Europe: A Hub for Innovation or a Retirement Home: Does Christian believe that young people in Europe work hard enough? What are the biggest challenges to scaling teams in Europe? Why does Johan believe the biggest challenge in Europe is the lack of exit markets? What can Europe do to improve and increase our chances of being successful?

Keith Rabois is a Managing Director @ Khosla Ventures and one of the most respected venture investors of the last decade. Keith has led investments in Stripe, Faire, Ramp, Affirm and many more. Just last week, Keith announced he would be rejoining Khosla from Founders Fund, where he spent an immensely successful 5 years as a General Partner. Prior to Founders Fund, Keith started his career at Khosla where he spent 6 years and led investments in DoorDash, Opendoor, Webflow and more. In Today's Episode with Keith Rabois We Discuss: 1. The Decision to Rejoin Khosla Ventures: Why did Keith decide to rejoin Khosla Ventures from Founders Fund? What did Keith miss most that Khosla did, that Founders Fund did not? How did Delian take the news? 2. Comparing Two Great Firms: Founders Fund vs Khosla Ventures: Investing Style: How does Keith compare the investing styles when analyzing FF and KV? Price Discipline: Which firm is more price-disciplined? Does price discipline even matter? What are the single biggest mistakes Keith has made on price? How did it change how he invests? Founder Type: What sort of founder would choose KV? What founder would choose FF? How did the depth & quality of investment decision-making compare between KV and FF? 3. What It Takes To Win in Venture in 2024: Liquidity: What have been Keith's biggest lessons on when is the right time to sell positions? Capital Planning: What have been Keith's biggest lessons on the most effective use of reserves? Why does Keith believe if you do not lose some deals as an investor, you are not competing for the right companies? Khosla Ventures recently raised $3BN. How important is the ability to support companies across their lifetime in 2024 vs stage specific? 4. Where is The Best Place to Invest: Why does Keith think seed is the best place to be investing today? Why despite the better risk/reward profile, does Keith think Series A is not the best place to invest? Does Keith believe we will see the return of growth investing in 2024? What does Keith predict for the M&A market in 2024? Did Figma kill all activity? When will the IPO windows open again? Why would Stripe go out this year? 5. Keith Rabois: AMA: Why did Keith not want to start his own fund? Will he ever? What have been Keith's biggest lessons from working with Vinod Khosla and Peter Thiel? What were Keith's biggest lessons from Roelof Botha on what it takes to be an effective board member? How does Keith think about bitcoin in 2024?

Steve Goldberg is the Chief Revenue Officer at Salesloft, the sales engagement platform that was acquired by Vista in 2022 for $2.3BN. Prior to Salesloft, Steve was Group Vice President of Enterprise at Yext and before that was a Senior VP @ InsideSales.com. In Today's Episode with Steve Goldberg: 1. Becoming a Sales Leader: When did Steve first fall in love with sales? Why does Steve believe sales is more psychology than anything else? What can sales reps do to master the psychology of their prospects? What does Steve know now about sales that he wishes he had known in the beginning? 2. How to Close Prospects Faster Than Ever: How does Steve build relationships with prospects very fast? What questions does he ask? How does Steve know if he is really speaking to a buyer? What are the signals? How does Steve advise sales reps on getting multiple relationships within an account to prevent the potential of losing your champion? How does Steve feel about discounting? When is the right time to do it? 3. How To Do The Best Deal Reviews: What makes good vs great deal reviews? Who is invited? Who is not? Who sets the agenda? Who is responsible for what? How do deal reviews change throughout the quarter and throughout the year? Is a deal slipping into the next quarter an acceptable excuse for a sales rep to give? 4. How to Ensure Renewals in a World When They are Not Guaranteed: Have all budgets centralized back to the control of the CFO? Are people right to say that no CFOs are buying new technology today? What is the best way to show to customers the value you provide? Why does Steve believe revenue operations is the most valuable role within an org?

Jack Altman is the Founder and CEO @ Lattice, the #1 people management platform, last valued at $3BN. Jack is an investor through his founding of Jack Altman Capital where he has invested in WorkOS, NexHealth, Owner.com, Mercury and more. Auren Hoffman is the Founder and CEO @ Safegraph, the most accurate database of global points of interest, last valued at $550M. Auren is an investor through his founding of Flex Capital where he has invested in Chime, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Vercel and more. Jason Lemkin is the Founder and CEO @ SaaStr, the world's largest SaaS community. Jason is an investor through his founding of The SaaStr Fund. In the past, Jason has invested in Pipedrive, Algolia, Salesloft, Front, GreenHouse, Owner.com, Gorgias and more. In Today's Episode on Founder-Led Funds We Discuss: Why have we seen the rise of "Founder-led Funds"? Are founder-led funds more empathetic to the founders they invest in? How do founder-led funds source and pick investments in a way that traditional VC does not? Will we see founder-led Funds truly compete against the Sequoias of the world? How does being an operator make you a better investor? How does investing help you be a better founder and operator? How do you communicate your investing practice and firm to your company and team? What are the biggest excitements and concerns LPs have for Founder-led Funds? Will we see the face of venture changing much more broadly and structurally? How do founder-led funds manage both time and company conflicts?

Scott Farquhar is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO @ Atlassian. Scott co-founded the company with his university friend, Mike Cannon-Brookes, in 2002 from Australia. Over an incredible 20-year journey they have grown to a market cap of $50BN today, over 11,000 staff globally and serving over 260,000 customers. Scott is also a co-founder of Skip Capital, a private investment fund with a portfolio including Figma, Snyk, Canva and more. In Today's Episode with Scott Farquhar We Discuss: 1. The 20-Year Journey to $50BN Market Cap: How did Scott first make his way into the world of tech and come to co-found Atlassian? What does Scott know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? From 20 years with Mike, what is Scott's biggest advice on choosing your co-founder? 2. The Fundraising Masterclass with Atlassian: An emergency phone call, a honeymoon cut short; how did the first funding round for Atlassian come to be? Where was the business revenue-wise at the time? Why did Scott not like the traditional fundraising process? What did he do to add game theory and ensure that they got the best deal as a company? Why did Scott choose Accel with their offer? How did Peter Fenton lose a $3BN deal with Atlassian? 3. Lessons Scaling Atlassian to $4BN in Revenue: What does Scott believe are the 4 core roles of the CEO? Is resource allocation the most important? What are the single biggest acts of commission and omission that Scott regrets? What are the biggest lessons Scott has from shutting down Stride, their Slack competitor? 4. Scott: The Father, Husband and Philanthropist: What does great fatherhood mean to Scott today? What is the secret to a truly successful marriage? How does Scott assess his relationship to money today? How has it changed with time? How does Scott think about bringing children up in a world of affluence and abundance? Fun Fact: Every single 20VC episode is recorded with Riverside.FM. It is the one product that I could not live without. Try it today here (https://creators.riverside.fm/20VC) and use the code 20VC for 15% off.

Kevin Niparko is the VP of Product @ Twilio. Kevin joined Twilio through the acquisition of Segment where he spent an incredible 8 years in numerous different roles including as Head of Product. Before entering the world of product, Kevin was a Management Associate at the world-renowned, Bridgewater Associates. In Today's Episode with Kevin Niparko We Discuss: 1. From Bridgewater to Head of Product: How Kevin made his way from the world of asset management and analytics to leading product teams? What are 1-2 of Kevin's biggest takeaways from his time at Bridgewater with Ray Dalio? How did the 8 year journey with Segment leading to their $3BN acquisition impact his approach to product? 2. What Makes a Great Product Person: Does Kevin believe that product is more art or science? If he were to put a number on it? What would it be out of 100? Why does Kevin believe that all product people should learn to write? Why does Kevin believe that the best product people are generalists and not specialists? Why does Kevin think that analytics is an insanely good start for product people? 3. How to Hire the Best Product People: How does Kevin approach the hiring process for product hires today? What are the non-obvious traits of hires he looks for? How does he test for them? Does Kevin use case studies? Where do many fall down? What do the best do? 4. Product Reviews: Good vs Great: How often does Kevin do product reviews? Who is invited? How have product reviews changed in a world where the company is now fully remote? What is the difference between good and great product reviews? What is the single best product decision Kevin has made? What did he learn? What is the worst product decision Kevin made? How did that change his approach?

Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and Co-Founder of Careem. Over the last 11 years, Mudassir has scaled the service to more than 80 cities in 10 countries, with 1,400+ colleagues and more than 2.5 million Captains. With such success, in 2020 Uber announced they would be acquiring Careem for a reported $3.1BN. Prior to Careem, Mudassir co-founded “DeviceAnywhere”, a company that was acquired by “Keynote” in 2008 before joining the management consulting firm “McKinsey & Company” in Dubai. In Today's Episode with Mudassir Sheikha We Discuss: 1. From McKinsey to $3.1BN Exit to Uber: What was the founding a-ha moment for Mudassir with Careem? What does Mudassir know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What does Mudassir believe he is running away from? 2. Finding Product-Market Fit: What is the single biggest mistake founders make when trying to find product-market fit? Does Mudassir believe you have to do things that do not scale, to scale? What did Careem do? What are some of Mudassir's biggest pieces of advice to founders on finding a core target audience and doing customer discovery the right way? 3. Competing with Giants: How To Win When You Cannot Outspend: How did Careem beat Uber when they had 1/100th of their budget? What advice does Mudassir have for founders who have competition that is much better funded? What is the story of spending the night in bunk beds and barely sleeping before raising $300M the next day? How did that happen? 4. The Acquisition: How it Went Down: How did Mudassir and Dara @ Uber first come to meet? How did Dara's approach contrast with the prior approach of Travis Kalanick? Why did Mudassir decide to sell and join Uber? What were the main reasons or arguments against the acquisition? 5. Talk to me About: Careem's Pakistan MD having to flee Pakistan for his safety post a marketing campaign? Elon Musk likes one of Careem's promotional videos and why? An investor who wired $1M with absolutely no paperwork? The catch up meeting that turned into a $3BN offer?

On this episode of Passive Income Pilots, Tait and Ryan interview Ben Fraser.Ben Fraser is Aspen Funds's Managing Director and CIO, a fund manager specializing in alternative income investments. He has over 10 years of experience in the financial industry, including commercial lending, credit underwriting, and energy infrastructure asset management. Ben was a key contributor to the growth of Tortoise Capital Advisors, a leading firm in energy infrastructure investments, from $3BN to $7BN in institutional managed accounts. He has an MBA from Azusa Pacific University and a B.S. in Finance from the University of Kansas.Ben talks about the oil and gas economics and the opportunities in this sector. He explains why the demand for oil and gas could remain steady or even rise in the future despite the green energy push. Ben dives deep into the intricacies of investing in oil and gas, uncovering the potential windfalls and pitfalls. He also sheds light on the benefits of a non-operated working interest and the tax advantages tied to oil and gas investments. He gives a comprehensive run-down of potential investment avenues, and mentions that currently, you can invest through capital raisers like Turbine Capital.Enjoy the show!Show notes:[0:00] Intro[2:21] About Ben and Aspen Funds[4:14] Oil and gas macroeconomics[10:27] Big Oil and the dynamics with medium and small operators[13:22] Historical trends in investing in oil[18:09] How many years an asset has in production[19:53] Effect of environmental issues on oil and gas investments[23:10] Oil and gas investment opportunities[30:30] Industry terms walkthrough[39:51] Invest with Aspen Funds through Turbine Capital[43:27] How to connect with Ben[43:58] OutroLinks mentioned:Find out more about Turbine Capital's currently open opportunity:https://turbinecap.investnext.com/portal/offerings/4053/Connect with Ben:Podcast: https://www.thebillionairepodcast.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwfraser/Legal DisclaimerThe content of this podcast is provided solely for educational and informational purposes. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts, Tait Duryea and Ryan Gibson, and do not reflect those of any organization they are associated with, including Turbine Capital or Spartan Investment Group.The opinions of our guests are their own and should not be construed as financial advice. This podcast does not offer tax, legal, or investment advice. Listeners are advised to consult with their own legal or financial counsel and to conduct their own due diligence before making any financial decisions.The hosts, Tait Duryea and Ryan Gibson, do not necessarily endorse the views of the guests featured on the podcast, nor have the guests been comprehensively vetted by the hosts.Under no circumstances should any material presented in this podcast be used or considered as an offer to sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy, an interest in any investment. Any potential offer or solicitation will be made exclusively through a Confidential Private Offering Memorandum related to the specific investment. Access to detailed information about the investments discussed is restricted to individuals who qualify as accredited investors under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.Listeners are responsible for their own investment decisions and are encouraged to seek professional advice before investing....

Dr. Wing Lim hosts guest Gaurav Sobti, Vice President at Create Commerical Mortgage Services, in a discussion about private versus public equity and real estate investing. Gaurav holds designations as CPA, CA, and CFA, and has a wealth of knowledge to draw from in shedding light on equity and what the average investor needs to know. Gaurav Sobti is the husband of a physician - he likes to joke that his parents wanted him to be a doctor so he did the next best thing and married one. He understands investments both from the financial point of view, his career, and from a physician standpoint as well. Gaurav defines a lot of terminology for Dr. Lim and offers insight into the markets and asset classes.  In this episode, Dr. Kevin Wing explores the world of private versus public equities with guest Gaurav Sobti. They talk about the differences between public and private, the pros and cons of each, the differences in leverage and liquidity, and who to buy such funds from. Gaurav shares some important advice on what to investigate and what questions to ask when approaching an EMD (Exempt Market Dealer) or fund manager. This episode is a solid groundwork guide into the world of private and public equity and real estate as an investment from a financial expert.About Gaurav Sobti, CPA, CA, CFA Gaurav Sobti has 10+ years of financial services experience across real estate, investments, finance and accounting.Gaurav's most recent formal role was with a national real estate finance firm where he was responsible for originating and underwriting commercial mortgage transactions with a specialty on CMHC insured (multi-family) financing. Prior to that, he spent 4+ years at a private investment fund which had a mortgage investment fund. Prior to that, Gaurav worked at Alberta Teacher's Retirement Fund Board on the private investments team focused on private equity transactions. Gaurav was part of a top performing team that managed a $3Bn institutional grade portfolio. Gaurav started his career at Deloitte, one of largest accounting/advisory firms in Canada and worldwide.By training, Gaurav is a designated CPA, CA and CFA Charter holder. Gaurav is a licensed mortgage associate.Resources Discussed in this Episode:Gaurav Sobti on LinkedInCreate Commercial Mortgage Services—Physician Empowerment: website | facebook | linkedin __TranscriptDr. Kevin Mailo: [00:00:01] Hi, I'm Dr. Kevin Mailo and you're listening to the Physician Empowerment podcast. At Physician Empowerment we're focused on transforming the lives of Canadian physicians through education in finance, practice transformation, wellness and leadership. After you've listened to today's episode, I encourage you to visit us at PhysEmpowerment.ca - that's P H Y S Empowerment dot ca - to learn more about the many resources we have to help you make that change in your own life, practice and personal finances. Now on to today's episode. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:00:34] Well, welcome, everyone, on a Monday night, and it's always good to see you guys. And yeah, so Kevin there, me and Gaurav. So I'm Wing Lim, Dr. Wing Lim and this is Dr. Kevin Mailo and there's Gaurav, our guest. So welcome, everyone. There are other people who might pop in later. Yeah, so we're super excited to be hosting this one, this webinar, live webinar and etiquette as we record the show and so that you guys know it's being recorded. So yeah, I'm one of the co-founders of Physician Empowerment and what we do with the live webinar and the podcast is we interview interesting people on interesting topics that might help physicians live better lives. So we're here to do all that. And so tonight I'm super pumped to have Gaurav to be our guest. And Gaurav is interesting for many, many reasons and we'll dive right into it. But Gaurav is a physician's husband, so this is one of the spouses, but he's got a very diverse background. So maybe tell me or tell us a little bit about your immediate family or extended family, how you link into the physician community. Gaurav Sobti: [00:01:45] Sure. So thanks, Wing So I like to joke that, you know, I come from an East Indian background, lots of medical doctors in that from that background. And so my parents wanted me to be a doctor. So I did the next best thing and married one. And so, yeah, my wife, she's a family physician. She's been a family physician, I think since probably 2015 when she finished her residency. She works as she works out of a clinic. We don't run the clinic. She just works out of a clinic. And yeah, her family has a few, there's a few doctors and her mom's a doctor and so is, I think her, her cousins as well. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:02:23] Right. And then you got some on your side, right? Gaurav Sobti: [00:02:26] Do I? I'd have to think actually, I don't, I'm not sure actually if I have too many on my side. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:02:31] Right, yeah. But it doesn't matter, right? We're all regular people anyways, right? It doesn't matter what profession we are. So now professionally, you have a very interesting background. You're a CA, CPA, CFA, that's quite a designation. You have institutional background and you're not, I guess you don't want to be stuck behind a desk doing people's tax returns. So you do a whole diverse a lot of things and you're into financing as well. So tell us more about what your journey is like. Gaurav Sobti: [00:03:01] Yeah, so I went to school in Waterloo. I actually studied biotechnology and chartered accountancy. So, you know, I was kind of hedging my bets, thinking maybe I'd go into medicine. Um, but yeah, so I, I worked for Deloitte, which is an international accounting firm there. It was good, I liked it, gave me a good investigative background, but kind of always knew I wanted to do finance. Decided to move out to Edmonton to join a sort of mid-size and growing pension fund, our teacher's retirement fund, and didn't really know much about finance really until I got into there and we were doing private investments. The program was, you know, I would say the book was, you know, it was a $3 billion book where that's what we were building. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:03:46] Wow, Wow. Gaurav Sobti: [00:03:47] Half was private equity, half was infrastructure. And I worked primarily on the private equity side. Yeah, we were investing in funds and co-investments. And it was fun. It was, I could have had a very cushy job, but decided that I wanted to kind of do more entrepreneurial things. So I, you know, long story short, I joined a private lender. That's where I kind of got my experience in real estate, I was there for about four years, kind of originating deals, mortgage deals. Right? Again, probably prior to that really didn't think of mortgages as investments. And then decided I wanted to get some CMHC experience, which is related to multifamily. So I joined a national real estate finance firm, learned multifamily financing, CMHC, and then now I've kind of become, you know, independent, you know, I am technically a mortgage broker, right? I like to think of myself as more of a sort of consultant, like I put together my own deals as well, equity deals for real estate as well because I think that's where my passion lies. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:04:52] Right? So that's a really interesting background. And so of course you're more qualified than anyone, but what you just said just caught my attention. You said you learned about private equity and real estate quite a few years after you became a CA, right? So that tells me that the CAs that we use, if they're the general practice kind of CA, they might not know a lot about this stuff, do they? Gaurav Sobti: [00:05:16] Yeah, no, you're totally right. Like I, when I was a CA and doing audits, right, you know, I would say my Excel skills were pretty limited as well. Right? Think now, you know, with new CAs that's improved. You know CAs, you know, they know numbers. Some of them, even within CAs, some of them know taxes, some of them don't. There were some CAs who were auditors who didn't even do their own personal tax returns. Right? So I think obviously, just like physicians, CAs come from different kind of backgrounds and experiences. Just as finance advisors do as well, right? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:05:55] It never ceases to amaze me how my colleagues and I made a lot of decisions, East, West Coast. They always run business ideas by the accountants. Gaurav Sobti: [00:06:02] Usually they'll tell, you know, then if it's your accountant because they're generally pretty risk-averse, right? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:06:08] They're very risk averse. They'll shoot down your idea even if it's a good one. Right? So anyways, that's just for what it's worth, right? Do not go to your accountant for business advice. Go there for your tax return advice. Right? So, yeah. Okay, so let's move on. So when we talk about private equity, let's talk about public markets, right? There's public, private and most people just give their money to their advisors. And most people, most physicians I know of have thrown their money into the public markets. And it's a mess out there. So do you want to make some comment about the reason that bank runs stocks, bond reversal, crypto upheaval can just give me, get a broad brush. What's the weather like? What's the temperature like out there in the public markets? Gaurav Sobti: [00:06:53] Yeah, no, I mean, so obviously there's a lot of volatility, right? You know, after Covid. Well, when Covid hit, you know, the markets took a big dive. And then there was a big run-up related to all the printing of money. Right? Now, they're kind of out of favor again. The markets have taken a hit with just interest rates rising. Right. Tech has definitely taken a huge hit. And, you know, now there's definitely recession fears coming. So, you know, the yield curve is kind of changing, you know, by the month. Right? And especially with these banking failures with ICB and now Credit Suisse like people are worried like is this another 2008? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:07:34] Very much so. Gaurav Sobti: [00:07:35] So there's definitely a lot of volatility. You're seeing that in the bond market for sure. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:07:39] Yes, exactly. So historically, people say, well, 80/20 rule, 60/40 rule 60% stocks 20/40% bonds. Oh, you're set. Well, gee, if both of them tank, what do we do if that's our retirement? Gaurav Sobti: [00:07:53] Yeah, me personally, like, I think capital should be, you know, flexible. I'm not saying, you know, public markets are bad, but sometimes, you know, there's sometimes a time to invest in them. And so there's sometimes there's better times and sometimes there's worse times. That being said, I think you look at the Canadian pension plan model, right? And Canadian pension plans are really pioneers globally when it comes to investing, right? They tend to put a lot of money into alternatives. And I would say the three big asset classes are private equity, infrastructure, and real estate. So definitely that has a place in someone's portfolio. And you know, there is a trend towards, you know, making this more widely accessible. But yeah, you definitely have to understand sort of what the risks are and, you know, private equity, again, very broad term. Right? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:08:42] So before you go further, because treat us like grade eight in finance language. Right? So what is private versus public? Why do they call it public versus private? What distinguishes them apart? Gaurav Sobti: [00:08:57] Yeah, so private, private and public, I mean, the simple difference is that, you know, public is on a, you know, it's openly traded on an exchange. There's generally more regulation there. Right? Like, you know, to go public, like there's a lot of securities documentation that have to be filled out. Whereas private can be, although there is securities regulation associated with private, it's not as regulated, right? And yeah, it's, you know, just it's privately owned. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:09:27] Right. So why do people consider, why people go into private equity versus public? What's the advantage there? Gaurav Sobti: [00:09:35] Well, I think there's a few things. So one is control, right? When you invest in a public security. Well, especially if you invest, let's say, through an EFT or a mutual fund manager, well, that manager does not have really any say or control over that over that company. Whereas, you know, if you invest in private securities, whether you're doing your own or you're investing with the manager, they're generally going to have more control, right? That's one reason. The second reason is, you know, there's diversification. There's the universe of public companies, like there's lots of public companies out there, but there's way more private companies out there. So, you know, if all you do is invest in public, then you're missing out on a segment of the market. And then I would say generally private investments they tend to, I mean they have outperformed. Right? That's another reason. There is potential for more alpha because of the fact that there is control and also because you might be investing in different, you know, smaller mid-sized companies or projects and that could eventually go public right through consolidation. Right? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:10:56] So let's go back a little bit because we are afraid of jargon. So when you say more alpha, do you mean that there's more profit? Gaurav Sobti: [00:11:02] There is potential for more profit. There is potential. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:11:04] And then that means that potentially there's more rate of return because people go to private, I know, at least I know people, myself included, go there because all the rate of return is more attractive. Gaurav Sobti: [00:11:14] There could be, yeah. Now, you know, I will caution that part of that return comes from leverage as well. Like the public markets hate leverage, right? So like if you look at like a public REIT, for example. They're definitely not going to put as much leverage on the asset. Now they'll say it's because of risk and, you know, there's probably some truth to that. But part of it is just if they put too much leverage on it, they're punished by the public markets. You don't have that issue in the private markets. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:11:45] Let's backtrack. By leverage you mean they actually borrow some money? Gaurav Sobti: [00:11:48] Yeah, they borrow. Yeah. Typically private investments, there's more leverage in loan. Right. Which, you know, leverage, you know, it can be in, you know, in the right instances, it can be a good thing for returns. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:11:58] Right. So so what other things should we consider like, say, the downside or the cons of private investment that we need to watch out for? Gaurav Sobti: [00:12:07] Yeah, I would say a con, one con is that it's not as liquid, right? So, you know, when you invest in a stock, if you need to sell, you can sell immediately. Now that can be a bad thing too, because sometimes you're your worst enemy, right? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:12:23] Chicken Little. Gaurav Sobti: [00:12:25] So yeah, like, you know, I would say if you're investing in private, you have to have a longer-term horizon, right? You shouldn't be investing funds that you're going to need anytime soon. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:12:35] So what kind of horizon, What months, years, decades? What are we talking about? Gaurav Sobti: [00:12:40] Well, definitely years for sure. Like, you know, obviously it depends on what you're investing in. But, you know, the thing is like public, you can literally buy something today, can sell it tomorrow, I might sell it for a loss, but I can sell it tomorrow. Right? Private securities, you don't necessarily have that liquidity. There are, there's I mean, we can probably for another conversation, there is a whole area called secondaries in the private markets, which does provide liquidity. But that's, again, that's probably too much for this conversation at this point in time. In general, private securities are less liquid. The other thing is transparency. Now, depending on the group you're investing in, right, like, you know, it's less regulated. So there's going to be, there can be less transparency around it. With public you have to file your statements quarterly. You're dealing with the regulator. Private overall is just less regulated and there can be less transparency. Like you could, you could just get into a deal with like, for example, a local developer. There could be, you know, very limited transparency around it. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:13:46] So in your experience, what's the split that, like most people, do they do like 80% of their money in public, 20% in private? What's your feel, like an average professional. Gaurav Sobti: [00:14:01] That's a tough question, but I would say it really depends on your own personal circumstances. And your need for liquidity. You know, that being said, I don't think you should be 100% in private, right? I think the public markets do, there is a role for them. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:14:20] Right. Gaurav Sobti: [00:14:22] And so it's, I would say, what I can tell you is that like, for example, the pension fund that I worked for, we had 35% in privates, right? So 10% was in private equity. 10% was in public equity, not public equity sorry, infrastructure, and 15% was in real estate. So I think if you look at a lot of the pension funds, you can pull up their reports, right, for Canada. Like I would say, they're anywhere between, you know, 30 to 50% in privates. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:14:55] Right. I think for most physicians, we don't, like we don't do day trading. We don't have time to do that. We're long-term. We're building up the nest egg for retirement for us and in intergenerational wealth. So for long-termers, you think it's a good idea, right, to... Because these are longer horizon, like you said. Gaurav Sobti: [00:15:16] Well, I think physicians, like the advantage they have is, you know, especially in Canada they're, generally if you're a physician, you're a physician for a very long time period. Right? You have very predictable earnings. And it's almost like a bond, right, in itself. Like that cash flow stream. So because of that, you can probably rely on that more than, let's say, other professions. Right? You know there definitely is a case to be made to invest more in private securities. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:15:49] Sure. So let's dive into it. So how can an average Joe get involved in private securities and where do they find them or what kinds are there? Gaurav Sobti: [00:15:59] So I mean, you know, some of the private wealth managers or investment managers, they may have a private offering. I will caution you that, you know, sometimes these guys are just trying to sell private securities for the sake of almost as - well I'm not sure what the right, I don't want to use the word gimmick - but they're just like, okay, we know private securities is hot. Let's get someone into, let's get these guys into private securities, but they don't necessarily know how to do actually, honestly, the proper due diligence is one. And frankly, they probably overly diversify. So when I was at the pension fund, for example, we actually ran a very concentrated private equity book where we invested inside fund managers. And then we also did direct deals alongside the fund managers. And the reason we were concentrated is because if you have like, let's say, 40 managers that you're investing in, well, they're going to have multiple funds that invest in, you know, 8 to 15 companies each, right? So that's just, like you're just overly diversified. You're probably going to end up, after all the fees are said and done, you're just going to end up getting like an ETF type return. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:17:21] Well that's exactly - I totally agree with that. And actually, it's not just me. So last time we interviewed Brandon Carlson. He's a portfolio manager and the podcast just got released. And so we asked him, I actually interviewed him in December and say, what's 2023 going, right? Where's the public markets going? And he's just saying exactly that because it's a zoo out there. So he says, if I were to predict where Fortune 500, half of this is going this way, half of that going that way. And if you just do a very broad-based diversification like index fund, you end up with the very mediocre thing, which is, you know, not much different, right? But then if you become more selective and you're not just picking average Joe, you actually need to understand what they do. And become more select, more focused. Then you probably win, right? So I guess that applies to private equities then? Gaurav Sobti: [00:18:17] No, definitely. Yeah. Like, so that's one thing to consider. You don't want to be overly diversified either because if you're trying to, you know, the whole one of the reasons to invest in private is to get that additional return. And if you just end up overly diversifying there, it kind of defeats the purpose. Right? And honestly, you have to just, depending on who you're investing with, like you might be able to find like a manager that you can invest directly who invests in companies. Right? Or you can invest through what is known as a fund of funds. So the fund, they create a fund like a feeder fund, which invests in a variety of managers. And honestly selecting the right manager to invest in, there is a skill to that. And there is a process. But if that manager is investing in, if your fund a fund is investing in too many managers and then they're laying on too many fees, then again, you're just going to end up with a ETF return, right? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:19:18] Right, exactly. Now let's pivot and move into that space, into more day-to-day. Who would end up buying these funds from. And there's a, one of the hot, hot, at least in my experience and in my space, but one of the hot, hot things is real estate, right? Real estate funds is part of this private equity. And they're a big chunk of real estate. And so I think you and I are both passionate in this space. And there's a lot of capital raised. There's a lot of good returns. So how would you describe the space right now, this real estate fund space. Is it expanding? Is it hot? Is it worth getting into it? Gaurav Sobti: [00:19:55] Definitely expanding. The whole alternatives is expanding and real estate is probably, you know, I haven't looked at the statistics, but it's probably one of the largest private asset classes. Right? And there are more private funds kind of showing up. Yeah, so you could find a manager to invest with. You could find a sponsor to invest in. You could go through an EMD as well, right? EMDs have different products on their shelves. But again... Dr. Wing Lim: [00:20:30] Let's talk about EMDs, that's a good catch phrase. Right? So what does EMD mean and what are they? What do they do? Gaurav Sobti: [00:20:40] Yeah. So Exempt Market Dealer - I was actually formally registered as an Exempt Market Dealer back in 2015 and I'll be honest, I didn't fully understand it at that point. I was maybe 25, 26. I just had the right credentials and someone got me registered. I got to learn about this space a lot later on, right? And think I have a better appreciation for it. So yeah, so an EMD is an exempt market dealer. From my understanding these are groups that are essentially allowed to raise capital in the exempt market space. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:21:12] So why, exempt from what? Gaurav Sobti: [00:21:14] From a prospectus. So when you're raising capital, there's, if you raise capital in the public markets, you have to prepare what is known as prospectus. Which is essentially a legal/marketing document to go public. When you raise money in the in the private markets, there's various exemptions that you can rely on to raise that capital. And, you know, one is, you know, friends and family, another is the accredited investor exemption. Right? And so if you're, I would say EMDS, one) from a from an issuer point of view, from like a sponsor point of view, if they're raising capital on a very frequent basis, then I believe they need to use an EMD right, to stay on with regulation. But EMDs also provide products to potential investors, right? So they have products on their shelves that they essentially sell. So you know, we've done our due diligence. We've approved them. And here you can invest in this product. That being said, I would say, I would caution you coming from a pension background and coming from learning from a mentor who really taught me how to do diligence and having an audit background, I personally would be skeptical of an EMD's, like how much diligence have they truly done? Right? There's probably some out there that are great, but there's some out there that are just pure salespeople who don't really understand the risk, haven't really done significant amount of diligence. Right? And frankly, they're probably not even investing their own capital in the opportunity. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:22:53] So basically, to recap, EMD in my mind, is more like a brokerage house that they have a product shelf and then the different products and these are all private equity products. Gaurav Sobti: [00:23:06] Yeah, that's a... Dr. Wing Lim: [00:23:07] So to speak. Gaurav Sobti: [00:23:08] That's a good way to sum that up. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:23:09] Good way to sum that up, right? So versus you go to mutual funds manager or advisor mutual funds. So that's all the public equities. Most average financial planners will sell you public equities, right? And the private equity salespeople are the... DRs. Right? So, and I don't know how everybody's exposure is, there more and more DRs because there are more and more projects. So other than EMDs, would there be some funds that people can buy directly or like, say, from this what you call sponsor, like the developer, the issuer they call them? Or what about a REIT? Can people just directly buy from these people? Gaurav Sobti: [00:23:48] Well, even if you invest in a private REIT, for example, most likely that private REIT is raising capital on a frequent basis. There will be an EMD involved. Like for example, I was just more curious, I won't name the shop, but, you know, I was just very curious about a certain apartment sort of issuer. Right? Private issuer. So I just, you know, I reached out to them. They immediately, you know, directed me to a third party EMD who I had a chat with about the suitability, first of all, about the opportunity. But whether it's suitable for me. Right. So chances are, if you're dealing with somebody who's raising capital on a very frequent basis, you will get in touch with an EMD. You can invest in projects directly without an EMD, right? But then the issuer has certain responsibilities. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:24:41] So you talk about accredited investors, right? So think a lot of EMDs, they look for doctors because we are mostly high net worth, right? So can you briefly just tell the audience what's the space about accredited versus non accreditors, the eligible to like, where do they make the cut-off? But do we fit? Gaurav Sobti: [00:25:01] So accredited investors, I mean... You know I think it's you have to have $1 million in net financial assets that can include your house or you have to make, you know, $200,000 individually or $300,000 with a spouse. And I believe it's like a two-year cut-off. And you have to believe that it's going to persist, right? So that's kind of the definition of accredited. So most doctors, you know, even if they don't meet the financial, the net financial asset test, they'll generally make it on the income test. Right? And then, you know, there's obviously a path forward to get to that net financial asset test as long as they, you know, continue to save money and invest properly. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:25:41] Right. And then for those of us who are a little bit more exposed, I don't know about the audience, but certainly I'm very familiar with this space. So they promise a lot of returns, double-digit, like 8, 9% prep and then back end. So we end up with 15, 20, 20+ percent. So do you think those are realistic? Are these real? Are they true or are they poo? Gaurav Sobti: [00:26:05] Yeah, I mean, I think I think they can be realistic, but, you know, definitely there can be a game to it as well, right? Like you can, you know, you can put together a model, right? And, you know, you can make whatever assumptions you want and you can create that 20% potential return. But I think you have to, like I think there's a few things you got to look at. What I look at, for example, is like definitely I want to have alignment of interest with whoever I'm investing with. I want to make sure that they have skin in the game, you know, whether it's through investing cash, hard cash in the deal, plus, you know, potentially putting up their guarantee. Right? They don't always have to have everything, but there's got to be some level of alignment of interest. And then you want to see what kind of, do they only talk about the potential gains, do they even mention any of the risk? What's their track record? Have they done it before? Right? And so those are kind of some of the critical pieces. Do they understand financing? I think that's pretty, especially in real estate that's very important. So I've met with Bob Dylan, for example, from Main Street, right, which is the company. He's very successful. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:27:22] Big guy Gaurav Sobti: [00:27:24] Big personality type. And you know, he said like, you know, in this business, you know, you make money on the buy - and again he's more value-add apartments - you make money on the buy, you make money on the financing. You'd be surprised how few sponsors, like how little finance knowledge they actually have and how little knowledge they have related to like even financing. Like I was, people send me opportunities to look at from time to time and, you know, I kind of give my input, right? Like I try to give my unbiased opinion. And someone showed me an opportunity in Winnipeg and it was $100 million project and they were using an interest rate that was like 2% below the current market, right? And so it's like, do you not understand? Like, you know what I mean? Like, you should have this basic understanding. And the other thing I would say is you have to see like, listen, you're going to pay fees, right? Whether you invest in the public markets, if you invest your manager or you invest in private, there are going to be fees. And sometimes the fees in privates are going to be higher. It is more work to put a deal together versus just investing in a stock. But is there an alignment of interest? Like is there a preferred return, for example? Right. I was just looking at another opportunity the other day for somebody and, you know, these guys were taking 40% sweat equity, no preferred return. And they didn't, it didn't seem like they were really putting any cash in the deal. So these are some of the things you should look for, right, when you're kind of evaluating somebody. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:29:01] Right. So to recap what you say, well, they give you very attractive return while some of those are actually true. But there's a lot of stuff hidden behind that is all by assumption. And we have to do some sort of a due diligence. Gaurav Sobti: [00:29:16] Or you have to get somebody who knows how to do it. Like, you know, like-- Dr. Wing Lim: [00:29:19] Because they-- Gaurav Sobti: [00:29:19] -- who can do it for you. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:29:21] Or you have to find somebody who could do the due diligence, short for DD, right, a proper DD. So of course with your background being an accountant, auditor and with your CFA, of course you would know how to crunch numbers. How would average Joe Doctor know whether the salesman across the table knows what they're talking about? Gaurav Sobti: [00:29:43] I mean, I would say you got to educate yourself, right? So if you want to take the path where you're going to do it on your own, then you definitely have to educate yourself. And it's not that it can't be taught, but you have to invest in that process. You know, despite being relatively educated, right, on the financial side, you know, I think anybody is capable of learning something. But they have to they have to have the time. And they have to commit to it. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:30:11] Right, exactly. Now, so we have actually gone over time, but I want to switch over and spend a little bit of time about institutional-grade real estate investment. So that's part of our topic. So what would you say is the institutional-grade real estate investment project? Well, you can. Gaurav Sobti: [00:30:29] Think of institutional grade as generally, I mean typically they are larger assets, but I mean I think you can do it on a small scale too. You just have to have some of the same structures, right? So when, let's say when you're valuing an opportunity, is there a preferred return built in? That's one, that's probably, you know, that's typically a sign of, that's like an institutional concept, right? If they don't have that, then it's definitely not meeting that test, right? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:31:00] So to me, institutional grade is what institutional funds would buy, right? So that or they would sell, right? And so if somebody builds a project and they would the institution would smell you and say, I want to buy you out, then, you know, you got institutional grade real estate, right? Because you're worth pursuing. But it's different, right? Because we, most doctors have one, two, three, 20 doors of condos or houses. And so these are moms and pops, right? And there's a different level, which is the bigger, more sophisticated real estate. Gaurav Sobti: [00:31:34] So yeah, generally larger assets for sure are considered more institutional grade for sure. Yeah. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:31:39] And the returns are different. The effort is different, right. And so that would be a discussion for a different day. Okay, so, one final question. So yeah, you already answered some of that for us, what's the next step if we're interested in this or - our audience is diverse, I know some of the audience already talked to you one on one - some already have a huge portfolio and they're actually walking into institutional-grade already. So what's next for people like that or for the average doctor if they want to expand? Gaurav Sobti: [00:32:14] Yeah, I mean you can consider investing in, like these GPLB structures, right? Just kind of keep kind of some of the things that I said in mind, right, when you're kind of evaluating these opportunities. And, you know, there are, you could talk to an EMD. But just again, if you're talking to an EMD I would say make sure that they're investing their own capital in those same opportunities. That's probably one of the first questions to ask them. And really understand their due diligence process and who's doing their due diligence. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:32:46] Yeah. Okay, good. Thank you, Gaurav. It's a lot of questions. It's a lot for people who haven't heard about this quite a bit. Dr. Kevin Mailo: [00:32:54] Thank you so much for listening to the Physician Empowerment podcast. If you're ready to take those next steps in transforming your practice, finances, or personal well-being, then come and join us at PhysEmpowerment.ca - P H Y S Empowerment dot ca - to learn more about how we can help. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd really appreciate it if you would share our podcast with a colleague or friend and head over to Apple Podcasts to give us a five-star rating and review. If you've got feedback, questions or suggestions for future episode topics, we'd love to hear from you. If you want to join us and be interviewed and share some of your story, we'd absolutely love that as well. Please send me an email at KMailo@PhysEmpowerment.ca. Thank you again for listening. Bye. 

In this episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast, I speak with returning guest Mikołaj Barczentewicz, an expert on European data privacy law, about the recent $1.3BN fine that the Irish DPC issued to Meta over its transmission of EU residents' data to the United States. We discuss the history of data transfer frameworks between the EU and the US and why they've all been invalidated, the core motivations of EU protectionism related to data transfer, and the implications for all technology companies of the Irish DPC's decision.

In this episode we welcome serial investor, CEO and board member Tom Reilly who shares his insight into business growth, leadership and the role of a CEO. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE What is the role of a CEO? The Three Essential Ingredients to Scaling a Business How to lead leaders The Story of a Ten Figure Exit THIS WEEK'S GUEST Tom Reilly has a thirty year career forming, leading, scaling and advising high-growth enterprise software and cybersecurity vendors. After an early career with IBM and running sales in the 90s for Lotus and BroadQuest, he became CEO of Trigeo, which was sold to IBM in 2004, and then became President and CEO of ArcSight, which he scaled globally, took through an IPO and exited to HP for over $1.5Bn and then CEO of Cloudera which he IPO'd with a $3Bn valuation and a $5.2Bn merger with HortonWorks. He has served on the boards of companies such as ELoqua, Jive Software, Trusona, Incorta, Datastax and Anomali, and served as the Chair of the Economic Development and Advisory Committee for the City of Sausalito. Tom is proud to support the work of Cybermindz.org, for more information about their incredible work in mental health within the cybersecurity community, please visit https://cybermindz.org/ YOUR HOST Simon Lader is the host of The Conference Room, Co-Founder of global executive search firm Salisi Human Capital, and podcast growth consultancy Viva Podcasts. Since 1997, Simon has helped cybersecurity vendors to build highly effective teams, and since 2022 he has helped people make money from podcasting. Get to know more about Simon at: Website: https://simonlader.com/ Make Money from Podcasting: https://www.vivapodcasts.com/podcastpowerups Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonlader LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/headhuntersimonlader The Conference Room is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music iHeartRadio And everywhere else you listen to podcasts!

In this dynamic episode of our podcast, we navigate the fascinating twists and turns of the tech landscape. Strap in as we explore rumors, regulations, and the often outrageous online exploits of eLON mUSK. We kick off the conversation by diving into rumors swirling around Apple's venture into the VR realm. Our host explores the potential features, uses, and implications of this rumored VR headset. What might it mean for the future of digital interactions, gaming, or even remote work? And how does it stack up against competitors in the VR space? Next, we shift gears to a more sobering topic - the massive $1.3Bn fine imposed on Meta, formerly known as Facebook, for violating GDPR rules. This landmark FINE underscores the increasing importance of data privacy and the potential repercussions for companies that fail to comply. We explore the intricacies of the case, its implications for tech giants, and what it means for everyday users. To round out the episode, we delve into the latest Twitter antics of the notorious tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk. From his provocative tweets, announcements about SpaceX, Tesla, to the latest developments in Neuralink, we examine the impact of Musk's online behavior on his companies, his followers, and the tech industry at large. Join us for a thrilling ride through the ups, downs, and loop-de-loops of the tech world. Whether you're an Apple enthusiast, a privacy advocate, or a Musk-watcher, this episode offers insights and perspectives you won't want to miss. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marcusandrami/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marcusandrami/support

This week we welcome Arik Kasha, VP EMEA of Seraphic Security to talk about his strategy and philosophy to successfully growing and scaling startups - and it's all about relationships. Arik Kasha is the VP Sales EMEA of Israeli cybersecurity vendor Seraphic Security. He is a graduate of The College of Management Academic Studies and began his sales career with Aladdin Knowledge Systems, now part of SafeNet, where he spent ten years. After running the EMEA sales team at AlgoSec, he joined ObserveIT who were acquired by ProofPoint for $225m (ProofPoint were then acquired by Toma Bravo for $12.3Bn) and after almost ten years with them joined Seraphic Security where he has responsibility for scaling the European revenues. LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasha Website: www.seraphicsecurity.com YOUR HOST Simon Lader is the host of The Conference Room, Co-Founder of global executive search firm Salisi Human Capital, and online coaching firm Salisi Academy. Since 1997, Simon has helped Senior Executives achieve Life Transformation by finding their ideal job and consulting with leading enterprise software and cybersecurity vendors to build highly effective teams. Get to know more about Simon at: Podcast: https://theconferenceroompodcast.com Website: https://simonlader.com/ Blog: blog.salisi.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonlader LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/headhuntersimonlader Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3dd0obQSM8cYRV0HCxiuF0

In a wide-ranging conversation, Leo Laporte talks with Dr. George Church about the history and future of genome sequencing. Dr. Church explains why he is very excited about how they made an organism resistant to all viruses- both known and unknown.   They also talk about:  How Dr. Church made sequencing affordable (from $3BN to $600) Where are we on sequencing the entire human genome, and why would we even want to? How close are we to reversing aging? Should we use gene therapy to double the human lifespan? Why genetically engineering cold-resistant elephants could be important for climate change, and what about ultimately bringing back the Mammoth? He explains the difference between the hype and reality of CRISPR sequencing, synthesis, and delivery What are the privacy concerns about companies sharing your genome? They discuss the controversy and benefit of reconstructing old viruses like the 1918 flu and even inventing new viruses. Dr. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in personal genetics. He is credited with developing the first methods for sequencing the first genome and also the CRISPR technology. He created several companies, including Nebula Genomics and Veritas Genetics. Host: Leo Laporte Guest: Dr. George Church Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Leo Laporte talks with Dr. George Church about the history and future of genome sequencing. Dr. Church explains why he is very excited about how they made an organism resistant to all viruses- both known and unknown.   They also talk about:  How Dr. Church made sequencing affordable (from $3BN to $600) Where are we on sequencing the entire human genome, and why would we even want to? How close are we to reversing aging? Should we use gene therapy to double the human lifespan? Why genetically engineering cold-resistant elephants could be important for climate change, and what about ultimately bringing back the Mammoth? He explains the difference between the hype and reality of CRISPR sequencing, synthesis, and delivery What are the privacy concerns about companies sharing your genome? They discuss the controversy and benefit of reconstructing old viruses like the 1918 flu and even inventing new viruses. Dr. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in personal genetics. He is credited with developing the first methods for sequencing the first genome and also the CRISPR technology. He created several companies, including Nebula Genomics and Veritas Genetics. Host: Leo Laporte Guest: Dr. George Church Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/twit-events. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

In a wide-ranging conversation, Leo Laporte talks with Dr. George Church about the history and future of genome sequencing. Dr. Church explains why he is very excited about how they made an organism resistant to all viruses- both known and unknown.   They also talk about:  How Dr. Church made sequencing affordable (from $3BN to $600) Where are we on sequencing the entire human genome, and why would we even want to? How close are we to reversing aging? Should we use gene therapy to double the human lifespan? Why genetically engineering cold-resistant elephants could be important for climate change, and what about ultimately bringing back the Mammoth? He explains the difference between the hype and reality of CRISPR sequencing, synthesis, and delivery What are the privacy concerns about companies sharing your genome? They discuss the controversy and benefit of reconstructing old viruses like the 1918 flu and even inventing new viruses. Dr. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in personal genetics. He is credited with developing the first methods for sequencing the first genome and also the CRISPR technology. He created several companies, including Nebula Genomics and Veritas Genetics. Host: Leo Laporte Guest: Dr. George Church Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Leo Laporte talks with Dr. George Church about the history and future of genome sequencing. Dr. Church explains why he is very excited about how they made an organism resistant to all viruses- both known and unknown.   They also talk about:  How Dr. Church made sequencing affordable (from $3BN to $600) Where are we on sequencing the entire human genome, and why would we even want to? How close are we to reversing aging? Should we use gene therapy to double the human lifespan? Why genetically engineering cold-resistant elephants could be important for climate change, and what about ultimately bringing back the Mammoth? He explains the difference between the hype and reality of CRISPR sequencing, synthesis, and delivery What are the privacy concerns about companies sharing your genome? They discuss the controversy and benefit of reconstructing old viruses like the 1918 flu and even inventing new viruses. Dr. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in personal genetics. He is credited with developing the first methods for sequencing the first genome and also the CRISPR technology. He created several companies, including Nebula Genomics and Veritas Genetics. Host: Leo Laporte Guest: Dr. George Church Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/twit-events. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

In a wide-ranging conversation, Leo Laporte talks with Dr. George Church about the history and future of genome sequencing. Dr. Church explains why he is very excited about how they made an organism resistant to all viruses- both known and unknown.   They also talk about:  How Dr. Church made sequencing affordable (from $3BN to $600) Where are we on sequencing the entire human genome, and why would we even want to? How close are we to reversing aging? Should we use gene therapy to double the human lifespan? Why genetically engineering cold-resistant elephants could be important for climate change, and what about ultimately bringing back the Mammoth? He explains the difference between the hype and reality of CRISPR sequencing, synthesis, and delivery What are the privacy concerns about companies sharing your genome? They discuss the controversy and benefit of reconstructing old viruses like the 1918 flu and even inventing new viruses. Dr. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in personal genetics. He is credited with developing the first methods for sequencing the first genome and also the CRISPR technology. He created several companies, including Nebula Genomics and Veritas Genetics. Host: Leo Laporte Guest: Dr. George Church Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Leo Laporte talks with Dr. George Church about the history and future of genome sequencing. Dr. Church explains why he is very excited about how they made an organism resistant to all viruses- both known and unknown.   They also talk about:  How Dr. Church made sequencing affordable (from $3BN to $600) Where are we on sequencing the entire human genome, and why would we even want to? How close are we to reversing aging? Should we use gene therapy to double the human lifespan? Why genetically engineering cold-resistant elephants could be important for climate change, and what about ultimately bringing back the Mammoth? He explains the difference between the hype and reality of CRISPR sequencing, synthesis, and delivery What are the privacy concerns about companies sharing your genome? They discuss the controversy and benefit of reconstructing old viruses like the 1918 flu and even inventing new viruses. Dr. Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a pioneer in personal genetics. He is credited with developing the first methods for sequencing the first genome and also the CRISPR technology. He created several companies, including Nebula Genomics and Veritas Genetics. Host: Leo Laporte Guest: Dr. George Church Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/twit-events. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

On todays show, Kevin Bees interviews entrepreneur and speaker Rael Bricker.   Rael Bricker has seen it all - from being 6,000 feet under ground to growing an education business to 4000 plus students, to spending years working in venture capital. He's listed companies on two international stock exchanges, and his financial services group has settled more than $3bn in loans in 18 years. Rael has diverse work history combined with his unique global research interviews with companies in more than 25 countries.  With over 30 years as a serial entrepreneur, Rael Bricker helps businesses succeed by delivering a series of dynamic talks on building businesses by thinking outside the box. Rael has been presenting for many years on business, culture, finance, investing, diversity and ethics.  The learning is best practice combined with practical experience to achieve business excellence.   Rael Bricker holds two Masters degrees, an MBA and MSc (Software Engineering) and an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering (BSc (Eng) . Rael is currently a Fellow of the MFAA. (Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia), a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) of PSA (Professional Speakers Australia) and a Member of AICD (Australian Institute of Company Directors). Additionally, Rael is the first inspirationalist in Australia with Integrus Global and a Mentor with both Mentored With Mark Bouris and Mastermind.space.  Rael is also the Author of “Dive In : Lessons learnt since business school”.   In today's episode Rael Bricker shares: How he has managed to publicly list companies twice How growing companies via acquisition led his business to a 17x growth How he learned new skills along the way and became a licensed finance broker, and mortgage broker and has been able to help businesses raise over the $3Bn in funding. Why his focus is on helping people in business to be the best version of themselves and how he does that through: Leadership Culture Strategy Jack Welch quote: “The soft stuff is the hard stuff” Lead indicators and lag indicators - if you can get leadership, culture and strategy to work correctly, the lag indicators of profitability will follow in the right direction. The life-changing question Rael asked after recovering from a serious heart condition: “What am I passionate about in my life?” / “What makes me happy?” How he became South Africa's #1 Toastmaster at the age of 20, and how he has continued to improve with the help of experts like Lindsay Adam's, Michael Grinder & Glen Capelli. What is ‘return on excellence' and how to obtain it. Resources mentioned in today's episode: Radical Candor By Kim Scott www.raelbricker.com/freebook www.raelbricker.com/ebook www.raelbricker.com/colours Lindsay Adams Glen Capelli  https://profithive.com.au/glenn-capelli-kevin-bees/   If you would like more insights on profit maximisation for your business visit www.ProfitHive.com.au

Will Hockey is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO @ Column, the only nationally chartered bank built to enable developers and builders to create new financial products. Before co-founding Column, Will was the Co-Founder, President, and CTO @ Plaid, a world-leading data network and payments platform. In 2020, Visa attempted to acquire Plaid for $5.3BN, however, this was blocked due to regulatory issues and the company went on to raise at a reported $13.4BN valuation just 9 months later. Additionally, Will is on the board of Scale.ai. In Today's Episode with Will Hockey We Discuss: 1.) The Founding of $13.4BN Plaid: How did Will make his way into the world of startups and come to found Plaid with Zach? If we are all a function of our histories, what is Will running from? What is he running toward? What does Will know now that he wishes he had known when he started Plaid? 2.) Will Hockey: The Makings of a Decacorn Founder: What does the term "high performance" mean to Will? How has this changed over time? Having had such a successful time building Plaid to $13.4BN, how does Will assess his own relationship to risk and his relationship to money? How does Will approach his own personal portfolio planning? Equity, debt, real-estate? How does Will optimize his own personal wealth? Column is his second time founding a company, what did Will decide to take from Plaid that worked well? What did he decide he would not do having seen it work badly at Plaid? 3.) The Building of Truly Great Teams: Why does Will believe that companies can be built so much slower than people think? How does Will determine the decisions that have to be made fast vs those with time? How does Will ensure the same size of urgency and speed within his team without this time or funding pressure? What have been Will's single biggest lessons when it comes to people acquisition and retention? 4.) Fintech: The Next 10 Years: How will the next 10 years look different from the last in fintech? What changes will be better? What will be worse? What is Will worried about? What is he excited about? What does Will mean when he says, "the US financial system can function like a protocol"? What does Will believe are some of the core myths of the US financial system? Why does Will believe the current financial system can and will fix a lot of what crypto is trying to solve? What barriers will prevent this from happening? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Will's Favourite Book: The World for Sale: Money, Power and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources, Merchants of Grain: The Power and Profits of the Five Giant Companies at the Center of the World's Food Supply

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: FTX will probably be sold at a steep discount. What we know and some forecasts on what will happen next, published by Nathan Young on November 8, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Tl;dr: The purpose of the document is to add clarity. It was written quickly. If you think it is net harmful, comment saying so, I'm pretty happy to delete. How ever I (Nathan) largely stand by its contents. Binance, a competitor sold a large stake of FTT, FTX's native token and implied that FTX was at risk by mentioning a recent crash (LUNA) This started a run on the bank where depositors attempted to get their money out. FTX paused withdrawals for a while and seemed to be struggling SBF tweeted that FTX.com (not FTX US or Alameda) was beginning the process of being sold to Binance in order to safeguard depositor assets FTX.com comprises ~39% of Sam's assets and will be sold at a steep discount, affecting the value of FTX US and Alameda All depositors got their deposits back, which is good This likely means there will be a lot fewer assets for the effective causes, which is a tragedy Our sympathy lies with SBF and the team Since most of the knowledge we want is around, prediction markets will probably be pretty accurate. There are some around a range of outcomes such as the sale value and FTX Future Fund regranting (scroll down) We should wait and see what happens Please flag any issues and we'll try and correct them Longer version There are three key entities here (prices according to Bloomberg, so probably wrong): FTX (The worldwide business) that composes about 39% FTX.US (FTX's US arm) a crypto exchange that composes about 13% of SBF's wealth Alameda, a hedge fund which composes 46% Alameda was SBF's original hedge fund and made markets for FTX. The behaviour of the two was correlated, and Alameda held large positions in FTT, FTX's token. Coindesk reported Alameda were in trouble, and some internal documents were leaked. Alameda CEO, Carlone Ellison rebutted. Binance left/was pushed out of an early funding round of FTX and were paid in FTT, FTX's native token. It seems like there was bad blood. This week Binance said they were selling their FTT and referenced LUNA a coin that recently crashed. It is common for projects in crypto to fail, so when there is a sense they will, people withdraw their money rapidly. This started a run on FTX. Earlier today SBF announced that, FTX.com, the non-US business had been agreed in principle to be sold. SBF talks about that here. It will likely be sold at a steep discount. This is tragic and will likely lead to fewer resources for effective causes. Cz (Binance)'s Twitter thread: There are some large unanswered questions both for EA and FTX. This reduction in resources will mean many fewer are dedicated to the worlds top problems as may of us see them. To me that is an enormous tragedy. There are questions about funding which will affect some jobs and we've tried to create some clear signals below. Finally I'm sure this has been a terrible few days for Sam and his team and will likely continue to. Relevant forecasts Here is a section of relevant forecasts to try and give people a picture of what might happen. Will CZ/Binance acquire ftx.com? If it doesn't, I don't know what will happen. How much will the deal imply that FTX.com is worth. Since we don't know how much of FTX got sold, we can only guess the price implied by the sale. More than $3bn would be bad but better than expected. Less than $.5 would be catastrophic. If FTX.com is bought by Binance, will the deal imply FTX.com is worth more than $.5Bn? If FTX.com is bought by Binance, will the deal imply FTX.com is worth more than $3Bn? 66% The other key question is what happens to the FTX Foundation. How much will it spend next year? 66% Will the FTX Future Fund spend more than $300mn in 2023? ...

Emil Michael is the Former Chief Business Officer at Uber and is commonly referred to as Travis Kalanick's right-hand man. At Uber, Emil was instrumental in raising nearly $15BN from some of the largest investors in the world, making Uber the most valuable private tech company ever. Emil was also core to Uber's China strategy and led deals with Didi and Baidu. Before Uber, Emil spent 9 years at TellMe Networks where he was central to Microsoft raising their acquisition price from $300M to $800M. Emil is also an advisor to some of the greats including Raf @ GoPuff, Zach @ Codeacademy, Jared @ Fundera and many more. In Todays Episode with Emil Michael: 1.) From Politics to Travis's right-hand man at Uber: How did Emil make his way into the world of startups with TellMe networks? Harvard, Stanford, Goldman, Politics, which career shaped Emil the most? When Emil looks at his cohort of Ali and Hadi Partovi, Alfred Lin, and many others, what did they have that Emil believes is core to their success today? 2.) Negotiations 101: A Masterclass: What is Emil's framework for dealmaking? How has it changed over time? What are the single most important elements to remember when making deals? What are the biggest mistakes people make when negotiating? What is the right way to use leverage in negotiations? How can one handle an opponent that is emotional or irrational when negotiating? How did Emil make Steve Ballmer @ Microsoft increase his offer for TellMe from $300M to $800M? What is the single deal that Emil made that he regrets the most? 3.) Uber: The Journey to the Most Valuable Private Company: Why were Emil and Travis removed from Uber? Does Emil think it was fair? Is it true that Travis lost the support of the team? How did his removal take place? How did the Uber China deal go down with Didi? What got DiDi over the line on the deal? How did Emil raise $3BN from Saudi in just 60 days with Travis needing to attend only one meeting? 4.) Uber: The Review: How does Emil assess the management and performance of Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi? If Travis and Emil were still in charge, what would Emil have done differently? Why does Emil think Dara and Uber have made a $30BN mistake in food delivery? Why does Emil think Postmates, Careem, and others have been the worst acquisitions in tech? 5.) The Venture Landscape: Emil entered the world of VC with Coatue, why did he decide that VC was not for him? How does Emil analyze the VC landscape today? Who are risers? Who are fallers? What are the single biggest points of misalignment between founder and VC? What are the core improvements that Emil would like to see made to the VC world? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Emil's Favourite Book: Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Furthr VC has announced that it has led a €1.1M investment round in Galway's hybrid workplace management platform, Ronspot. The investment, which also included funding from the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) and Enterprise Ireland, will help Ronspot to expand its team and scale globally. Starting out as a corporate parking management solution in 2018, Ronspot has evolved to a three-in-one space management platform designed to make hybrid working easy, while also supporting efficiency in the workplace. The cloud-based application enables users to book car and bicycle parking, hot desks and meeting rooms, as well as manage visitor requirements and other resources including lockers – all on one unified mobile app. Users can see real-time availability, as well as the bookings of their colleagues. From three customers in two countries in 2018, to more than 200 customers in 30+ countries today, Ronspot is on a rapid, upward growth trajectory. The company expects revenues to grow by 400% year-on-year to 2025. The growth has been driven by the widespread adoption of hybrid working models – in a space and workplace management software market that is expected to grow beyond $1.3BN by 2024, supported by Ronspot's continued development of its platform. In the last two years, it has added new features including groups, teams, recurring bookings and single sign-on – resulting in its engineering team more than doubling in the last two years. On the back of its latest funding round and to fuel further growth, Ronspot will create an additional 10 jobs in the next 18 months, bringing its team up to 28 people. The new roles, based in Galway and Dublin on a hybrid or remote basis, will be in the areas sales, marketing, customer success, data security and human resources. The additional team members will help Ronspot to expand in new and existing markets. It is currently taking part in the Enterprise Ireland ‘Enter the Eurozone' programme with the aim of establishing a physical presence in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The funding from Furthr VC comes from its latest fund, backed by leading Irish technology entrepreneurs and business leaders, as well as Enterprise Ireland. With an emphasis on highly scalable, export-focused software and MedTech companies, the €32M fund has so far invested in 15 companies and is on-track to invest in up to 30 companies by year-end 2024. Michael Furey, CEO, Ronspot, said: “Today's organisations are acutely aware of the need to provide flexible hybrid working solutions in order to retain and attract talent. It continues to be an employee's market and top talent will leave roles, or accept positions elsewhere, if a company isn't doing enough to support the work/life balance that they have become accustomed to over the last two-and-a-half years. We recognised this shift early on in the pandemic and have evolved our solution to become an essential tool in any modern workplace. “Additionally, organisations are starting to review their real estate commitments with an eye on how they can reduce their building footprint and its associated costs, while at the same time increasing their head count with more intelligent management of their office spaces. The days of ‘one desk, one employee' are a thing of the past for many, so it's important that these resources are utilised more effectively in the future. “We are delighted to receive this funding from our investors, who share our excitement for the future of Ronspot. The team at Furthr VC have been working closely with us, offering valuable advice as we prepare for a period of rapid global growth.” Richard Watson, Managing Partner, Furthr VC, said: “Great companies can be born out of uncertain times and Ronspot is an example of this. Early in the pandemic, the team recognised that the world of office work was changing forever and took the company in a new direction to take advantage of this. We are excited to be leading this investment round and look forward to wor...

Ravi Viswanathan is the Founder & Managing Partner at NewView Capital. Today with over $2.2BN AUM, Ravi has built a portfolio including Plaid, Duolingo, Hims & Hers, MessageBird, and Scopely. Prior to founding NVC, Ravi was a General Partner at NEA, where he co-led the firm's fintech investment practice and made investments in Braintree (acquired by PayPal), MuleSoft (acquired by Salesforce) and Plaid to name a few. In Today's Episode with Ravi Viswanathan: 1.) Entry Into Venture: How Ravi made his way into the world of venture with NEA? What led Ravi to spin out of NEA and raise $1.3BN for the debut NewView fund? How did seeing the multiple booms and busts impact Ravi's mindset investing today? 2.) Impact on Seed and Series A: What is the impact of the current market on the seed ecosystem? Why does Ravi believe we could and will see price inflation at the earlier stages? How does Ravi advise early-stage founders when it comes to managing runway and burn? 3.) Impact on Growth: How does the current macro environment impact the growth landscape today? How does Ravi reflect on his own price sensitivity? Why will this landscape be some of the best times to invest? Where is Ravi most excited? How does Ravi assess the difference between efficiency and capital-driven growth? 4.) Secondaries and M&A: How does Ravi believe the secondary market will be impacted? Why will more and more of the best seed and early funds engage in secondaries? How does Ravi advise managers on sizing the right amount to take off the table when selling? How does Ravi expect the private company to private company M&A market to change? Why is this change in the M&A market so exciting?

Elon Musk has taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter, according to a US securities filing. He's purchased a whopping 73,486,938 Twitter shares on the 14th March, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. (SEC) Upon the announcement of that, Twitter shares rocketed 25% in pre-market trading. The stake is worth ~$3Bn and makes him one of the largest shareholders, substantially higher than 2.25% owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The reach and power of Elon on Twitter, sends shockwaves which literally increase or decrease the price of Cryptocurrencies, perhaps he now feels that by having such a high stake in Twitter he can really influence the direction of the company's strategic direction, perhaps as an activist shareholder. Last month Elon asked his Twitter followers whether they thought the social medial platform encouraged free speech. “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” He then asked: “Is a new platform needed?” Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done? Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022 Twitter has many critics, social media is polarising and it's hard to please everybody. Whatever Elon's motivations may be, one thing is for sure, it will be entertaining to observe. Check out my interview with Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. Check out my interview with @Twitter co-founder @biz for @Irish_TechNews Henry Joseph-Grant (@speirin) February 29, 2020

European bourses, Euro Stoxx 50 +2.2%, are firmer across the board in a continuation of the APAC/US handover as Russian-Ukraine talks begin.Risk-on that was exacerbated by Ukrainian negotiator Podoliak noted that a ceasefire is being discussed with Russia adding a press conference is to be expected later.Updates which further sapped geopolitical premia from crude benchmarks.DXY is softer, with EUR elevated amid pronounced yield upside as Bund 10yr nears 70bp; USD/JPY sub-124.00.Stateside, US equity futures are firmer but magnitudes more contained with Fed speak/supply ahead.Looking ahead, highlights include Speeches from Fed's Williams, Bostic & Harker & supply from the US.As of 11:15BST/06:15ETLOOKING AHEADSpeeches from Fed's Williams, Bostic & Harker & supply from the US.Click here for the Week Ahead preview.GEOPOLITICSRUSSIA-UKRAINENEGOTIATIONS/TALKSUkraine and Russia peace discussions in Turkey have begun, according to Ukrainian TV. (08:27BST/03:37ET).Top Russian Negotiator Medinsky says a statement following Russian-Ukraine talks will occur in several hours, via Reuters citing Tass. Subsequently, Russia's Kremlin says we will know today or tomorrow if peace talks are promising; says dialogue between US and Russia is still needed; relations cannot be unaffected by personal insults.Ukraine negotiator Podoliak says that a ceasefire is being discussed, main issue is security guarantees followed by humanitarian issues.Russian Defence Minister Shoigu says the main task of their Ukraine military operation is the liberation of Donbass, via Ifx. Main task of the first phase is complete.Turkish President Erdogan says we have entered a phase where Ukraine/Russia discussions need to yield concrete results. Progress at the Istanbul meeting will pave the way for a Presidential meeting, which Turkey could also host.Ukraine Deputy PM says they are aiming to open three humanitarian corridors on Tuesday, including for private vehicles from Mariupol.France President Macron will speak with Russian President Putin later today; no time confirmed.DEFENCE/MILITARYKremlin spokesman Peskov said Russia would use nuclear weapons only when there is a threat to the existence of the state, while Peskov added that comments by US President Biden on Russian President Putin remaining in power were quite alarming and a personal insult. Furthermore, Peskov said Russia will not send gas without payment and that Russian troops are only shelling military installations, not houses and apartments.UK Ministry of Defence tweeted that Russian private military organisation the Wagner Group has deployed to eastern Ukraine with the group expected to deploy more than 1,000 mercenaries including senior leaders of the group for combat operations.ENERGY/ECONOMIC SANCTIONSRussian Kremlin reiterated that gas payments must be made in Roubles, Russia will not export gas for free.Australia announced sanctions and travel bans on 14 Russians, while it was separately reported that Australia imposed sanctions on 39 Russians linked to the Magnitsky case, according to Sputnik.Japan widened the scope of Russian sanctions to include luxury items such as premium cars and precious stones, according to Reuters.Russian Finance Ministry says it has fully met the liability on servicing the 2035 Eurobond, made a USD 102mln coupon payment.EUROPEAN TRADEEQUITIESEuropean bourses, Euro Stoxx 50 +2.2%, are firmer across the board in a continuation of the APAC/US handover as Russian-Ukraine talks begin.Upside that has been exacerbated by remarks from both Ukraine and Russian officials.US futures are firmer across the board, ES +0.4%, though magnitudes more contained with Fed speak and supply ahead.Click here for more detail.FXEuro elevated as EGB yields ramp up again and hopes rise regarding a Russia-Ukraine peace resolution, EUR/USD above 1.1000 and a series of decent option expiries stretching between 1.0950 and the round number.Buck caught amidst buoyant risk sentiment and hawkish Fed vibe, DXY sub-99.000 after narrowly missing test of 2022 peak on Monday.Yen maintains recovery momentum amidst more MoF verbal intervention and demand for month/fy end, USD/JPY under 124.00 vs 125.00+ peak yesterday.Franc flounders as SNB ponders direct repo indexing to main policy rate, USD/CHF around 0.9360 and EUR/CHF over 1.0300.Aussie gets retail therapy before fiscal reality via revised budget and Sterling unsettled by mixed BoE consumer credit, mortgage lending and approvals; AUD/USD straddles 0.7500 and Cable losing sight of 1.3100.Australian 2022-23 Federal Budget: Forecasts AUD 78bln budget deficit vs. AUD 98.9bln projected in December. Click here for more detail.Click here for more detail.Notable FX Expiries, NY Cut:EUR/USD: 1.0900 (722M), 1.0950-60 (1.3BN), 1.0975-80 (1.33BN), 1.1000 (2.78BN), 1.1100 (956M)Click here for more detail.FIXED INCOMEDebt rout continues as markets perceive progress towards Russia/Ukraine truce from latest round of talks.US Treasuries also conceding more ground for the final leg of this week's auction remit via USD 47bln 7 year notes.Bunds breaching yet another round number to the downside at 157.00 as the benchmark German yield approaches 70 bp.Click here for more detail.COMMODITIESCrude benchmarks have experienced an erosion of earlier upside amid multiple, but generally constructive, updates from Ukraine and Russia.Specifically, Ukrainian negotiator Podoliak noted that a ceasefire is being discussed with Russia adding a press conference is to be expected later.Albeit, the morning's action has not been sufficient to spark a test of the overnight parameters for WTI and Brent.Spot gold/silver are pressured once more, generally speaking in-fitting with other havens, exacerbated by the aforementioned risk-on move.Click here for more detail.NOTABLE EUROPEAN HEADLINESUK is interested in creating joint first ministers in Northern Ireland as part of an effort to improve the functioning of the devolved government, according to FT.ECB's Lane has warned that Europe "may have to get used to higher prices". He also expressed "major concern" over declines in consumer and confidence sentiment indices, according to Politico.DATA RECAPGerman GfK Consumer Sentiment (Apr) -15.5 vs. Exp. -14.0 (Prev. -8.1, Rev. -8.5)NOTABLE US HEADLINES:US Economic Adviser Rouse said the US does not expect a food shortage and sees inflation to ease this year into next, according to Reuters.US Moderate Democrat Senator Manchin said he doesn't support taxing unrealised gains of the wealthy and opposes reversing fossil fuel tax benefits, according to Bloomberg.US Senate voted 68-28 to pass the USD 52bln chips subsidy bill which paves the way for talks in an attempt to reach a compromise with the House, according to Reuters.US DoJ backs legislation targeting big tech such as Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL), according to WSJClick here for the US Early Morning NoteCRYPTOBitcoin is slightly softer overall, but remains well-within and towards the top-end of Monday's parameters.Environmental groups are pushing for a reduction in Bitcoin's energy use, according to WSJ.APAC TRADEEQUITIESAPAC stocks traded mostly higher following the gains in the US where growth stocks spearheaded a recovery and with a decline in oil prices conducive for risk.ASX 200 was led by strength in tech and consumer stocks heading into the Budget announcement.Nikkei 225 gained with Japan to compile economic measures by the end of next month.Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. traded mixed with the mainland index faltering amid the ongoing lockdown in Shanghai and despite the announcement of supportive measures by the local government.NOTABLE APAC HEADLINESPBoC injected CNY 150bln via 7-day reverse repos with the rate at 2.10% for a CNY 130bln net injectionPBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 6.3640 vs exp. 6.3601 (prev. 6.3732)Shanghai will implement large-scale VAT credits and refunds, as well as reduce or exempt rents for SMEs. Shanghai also announced to strengthen financial guarantee support for SMEs and eligible companies, while it is to offer CNY 140bln in tax savings to corporations this year, according to Reuters and Global Times.Japanese PM Kishida said the government ordered a stimulus compilation by the end of April and Economic Minister Yamagiwa said they will first prioritise providing prompt support by utilising emergency reserves, according to Reuters.Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno said currency market stability is important and that they need to watch recent moves closely, while Finance Minister Suzuki said they will closely watch market moves to avoid negative JPY weakness, according to Reuters.Japan's Steel Industry Head says the plunging JPY vs USD poses serious challenge to domestic manufacturers, as some industries are yet to overcome deflation pressure, via Reuters.BoJ offered to buy an unlimited amount of 5yr-10yr JGBs at a fixed rate on two occasions today, according to Reuters.BoJ Summary of Opinions from the March meeting stated that rising inflation could pressure overseas economic growth and there were worries of the risk uncertainty regarding situation in Ukraine could weigh on Japan's economy. BoJ stated that CPI is likely to accelerate from April and may move around 2% for some time, while it also noted that they must maintain monetary easing as Japan is unlikely to see inflation continuously exceed 2%.DATA RECAPAustralian Retail Sales MM Final (Feb) 1.8% vs. Exp. 1.0% (Prev. 1.8%)

How does a university project to index the entire Oxford English Dictionary become one of the world's largest information management companies with revenues of over $3Bn? To find out I spoke with Muhi Majzoub, Executive Vice President & Chief Product Officer of OpenText who leads the product development and strategy for the company as well as their transition to the cloud.Muhi has over 30 years of experience in technology, including 10 years at OpenText, and 16 years at Oracle as VP for Engineering and Application Development. Muhi is coming to us today from California.In this episode we coveredOpenText's originsInnovations that delightWhere do the best ideas come from?Sparking ideas with a distributed workforceMuhi's first experience of cloud computingOpenText's journey to the cloudPublic vs Private CloudsThe benefits of moving to the cloudKeeping the cloud secureCloud technology + supply chainsWhat's the future of Cloud?Cloud as part of the net-zero solutionWhat is an API Cloud?The different clouds from OpenTextHow cloud has helped industries over the pandemicThe future of information management3 actionable things around moving to the cloudMore on MuhiMuhi on TwitterMuhi on LinkedInOpenText websiteYour Host: Actionable Futurist® Andrew GrillFor more on Andrew - what he speaks about and replays of recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.comfollow @AndrewGrill on Twitteror @andrew.grill on Instagram.

Simeon Siegel, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at BMO Captial Markets, stops by The Business Brew to discuss his prescient call to sell Peloton, the oddity that brands peak at $3Bn in sales, the role of “Sell Side” analysts, and a whole lot of retail.  His views on how COVID saved retail were particularly interesting.  Simeon and Bill met at the dinner before Liberty Media's Investor Day, hit it off, and this conversation is the follow up.  We hope you enjoy!   Simeon's official bio reads as follows: Simeon Siegel is a Managing Director and award-winning Senior Analyst specializing in Retail and E-commerce. Simeon began his career at Goldman Sachs and has since worked on the #1 ranked Retail franchise at JPMorgan, Nomura | Instinet and BMO Capital Markets.   Dubbed "one of the more intellectual students of retail on Wall Street" by WWD, Simeon has been named a Top Retail Influencer by RETHINK Retail, a Top Stock Picker by StarMine, a Rising Star of Wall Street by Institutional Investor, a Rising Star of Equity Research by Business Insider, and a Top Earnings Estimator by Thomson Reuters and Refinitiv. He has worked on the Institutional Investor #1 ranked All America Research Team for Specialty Retail and the Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" list of top analysts.   Simeon is in constant dialogue with investors and C-Level Management across the industry, analyzing and advising on the ever-evolving retail landscape. He has guest lectured at Harvard Business School and NYU Stern School of Business and has been featured in a Harvard Business School case study. Simeon is a regular guest on CNBC and frequently quoted across the media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Women's Wear Daily, The Business of Fashion, Barron's, Bloomberg and others.   Simeon received a BA from Columbia University in Economics and Philosophy and is a CFA® charterholder. He serves on the Boards of the Hebrew Free Loan Society and the UJA Entertainment, Tech & Lifestyle Board and is Vice Chair of the UJA Retail, Fashion & Lifestyle Division. He previously served on the Board of Read Ahead.   Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosaic sponsor copy and thank yous. Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player! This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  Today, https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week. 70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB. Visit https://streamrg.co/BB to sign up for a 14 day trial. Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see https://www.mikeando.com/ Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production. Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!   Detailed Show Notes Open – Discussion of the role of sell side analysts 11:45 – Consumer tech and connected fitness discussion 17:00 – Small vs. big and how direct to consumer changed business dynamics 24:04 – Simeon's short Peloton call and how he pieced the idea together 32:00 – Why COVID may have saved retail; specifically Victoria's Secret 36:30 – How COVID potentially helped Under Armour 38:30 – Where brands peak 43:30 – What might the future hold 47:10 – The market lags the data when consumer growth stocks “crack” 50:45 – Why you should understand all 3 financial statements!' 51:50 – The difference between growth and maintenance spend 57:30 – A discussion about “expensive” stocks 1:04:00 – Do you want to focus on distribution or content/brand creation? 1:09:00 – Is Lululemon at a crossroads? 1:14:50 – What happened with Ralph Lauren? 1:23:30 – Closing thought: Know the cost of tomorrow    

Scott Sandell is the Managing General Partner of NEA, one of the leading firms of the last 3 decades with now close to $24Bn under management and a portfolio including Salesforce, Robinhood, Plaid, Databricks and more. As for Scott, since joining the firm in 1996 he has led investments in Salesforce.com, Tableau Software, WebEx and Workday and serves on the board of Robinhood, Cloudflare, Coursera and Divvy to name a few.  Rick Yang is a General Partner and Head of Consumer Investing @ NEA, since joining in 2007 he has led investments in the likes of Masterclass, Plaid, Robinhood and many more. In Today's Episode with Scott Sandell and Rick Yang You Will Learn: 1.) How Rick came to meet Vlad, Robinhood Founder, for the first time? What impressed Rick most in that first meeting? How did the internal discussions proceed at NEA? Was it a unanimous decision to make the investment? 2.) The Market: How did Rick and Scott evaluate the market at the time? Bottoms up, top down? How did the market change and evolve both in ways they did and did not expect? How do Rick and Scott evaluate market timing risk today when investing? How did Rick and Scott approach outcome scenario planning with Robinhood? 3.) The Traction: What core signals and datapoints made Rick realise Robinhood had product-market-fit? How did Rick and NEA analyse Robinhood's early organic customer acquisition? How did the board advise on how to spend their first marketing dollars? How does the cost structure of the business compare to Charles Swaab and eTrade? Why is Robinhood such a superior model? 4.) The Team:  How has Vlad evolved and developed as a leader over time? How did Vlad handle the 36 hours in Feb 2021 when he had to go and raise $3BN+? Who is the unsung hero of the Robinhood team? What have they done to deserve this?

Devin Finzer is the Founder & CEO @ Opensea, the world's first and largest NFT marketplace allowing you to discover, collect, and sell extraordinary NFTs. To date, Devin has raised over $423M for the company with their last $300M round valuing Opensea at $13.3BN. Before changing the world of NFTs, Devin co-founded ClaimDog which was acquired by Credit Karma and before founding ClaimDog, Devin was an engineer at Pinterest. Do want to say, I always love Semil Shah's startup of the year, for 2021 it was Opensea, check out his piece here. In Today's Episode with Devin Finzer You Will Learn: 1.) How Devin made his way into the world of NFTs and came to found the first and largest NFT marketplace in the form of Opensea? 2.) The Scaling Story: What were the first early signs that Opensea was working when they were in YC? What core metrics did they look at to determine success? Given NFTs not being "hot" at the time, how was the fundraising process for Opensea coming out of YC? What were the early investors most excited about? What was the inflection point when Opensea and NFTs really started to take off? What most surprised Devin about the way in which the inflection point happened? When scaling from $150M to $4BN in GMV, what are the first things to break in a company? How does Devin maintain company morale with such volatile crypto and NFT markets? 3.) The Next Decade of NFTs: How does Devin predict large brands and companies will utilise NFTs for their businesses? In what ways does Devin think creators and celebrities will use NFTs moving forward to create more efficient business models? How does Devin respond to the statement, "NFTs do more to harm than help income inequality?" What are Devin's biggest concerns moving forward when analysing the NFT market? How does Devin see the future for the development and experimentation of NFTs? 4.) The Future of NFT & Gaming: How does Devin see NFTs impacting the world of gaming most? How does Devin think about interacting with these gaming communities that are external to the centralised Opensea marketplace? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Devin Finzer Devin's Favourite Book: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

What You'll Learn From This Episode: Common problems: time, team, and money Why business owners need to make effort in recruiting Knowing the two dimensions of money Related Links and Resources: If they go to www.w5coaching.com/downloads and on the menu item there are 20 FREE tools that I use every day with my clients. And hopefully it can help you. Summary: John Nieuwenburg, is an award-winning Business Coach, who has worked with hundreds of clients. He coaches in 3 primary areas. Business: getting things done using proven tools, strategies and techniques to grow your business. Personal Growth: working with you in areas such as decision making, leadership, delegation and time management. Accountability: helping you to stay accountable for the results you have chosen. In an earlier life, John was the President of the BC Liquor Stores that today does about $3Bn of which about $1Bn is profit. Here are the highlights of this episode: John has shared with us that he has one or two types of ideal clients; professional advisors in a small-ish firms, or someone who has a craft, construction, or trade type of business. This covers all those professionals from those industries and also including business coaches. The common problems they face are around time, team, and money. When they start to tell themselves "I got so much to do and I can't get everything done. If I don't do it, it won't get done", they need to reach out to John. It's about getting the people to work and also getting the culture you want. And money has two dimensions; one side of it is getting proper accounting, metrics, key performance, or indicators so that you can measure results. While the other side of money, would be "I need more money. I need better sales and marketing." These folks may even feel like they're the only air traffic controller at the airport, meaning if they even take a break to the bathroom, they will think that planes will crash. They really felt that it's all on them, the responsibility. John would even ask his clients "If you can start your business from scratch, how many of your present people would you rehire?" and most common answer is only around 50%. So many business owners don't put much effort into recruiting as they would, or they should. Then they ending up recruiting on the side of their desk or just kind of an afterthought. Presently, that system isn't going to work anymore. And most business owners haven't really work with professional CFO's or someone who understand their financial status. Therefore, there's a gap between what they need to what are being offered to them by the accounting professional. John would like to remind us that information is cheap, execution is hard. If giving you the information gives you the tool you need, that's awesome. But a lot of times people needs help on how to implement. Then you can go to www.timewithjohn.com and it will take you to my calendar and let's have a short 15-minute chat to see if I can help you.  John's Valuable Free Action (VFA): If you want to have a help with the free resource I gave, then maybe we should talk.

What You'll Learn From This Episode: Common problems: time, team, and money Why business owners need to make effort in recruiting Knowing the two dimensions of money Related Links and Resources: If they go to www.w5coaching.com/downloads and on the menu item there are 20 FREE tools that I use every day with my clients. And hopefully it can help you. Summary: John Nieuwenburg, is an award-winning Business Coach, who has worked with hundreds of clients. He coaches in 3 primary areas. Business: getting things done using proven tools, strategies and techniques to grow your business. Personal Growth: working with you in areas such as decision making, leadership, delegation and time management. Accountability: helping you to stay accountable for the results you have chosen. In an earlier life, John was the President of the BC Liquor Stores that today does about $3Bn of which about $1Bn is profit. Here are the highlights of this episode: John has shared with us that he has one or two types of ideal clients; professional advisors in a small-ish firms, or someone who has a craft, construction, or trade type of business. This covers all those professionals from those industries and also including business coaches. The common problems they face are around time, team, and money. When they start to tell themselves "I got so much to do and I can't get everything done. If I don't do it, it won't get done", they need to reach out to John. It's about getting the people to work and also getting the culture you want. And money has two dimensions; one side of it is getting proper accounting, metrics, key performance, or indicators so that you can measure results. While the other side of money, would be "I need more money. I need better sales and marketing." These folks may even feel like they're the only air traffic controller at the airport, meaning if they even take a break to the bathroom, they will think that planes will crash. They really felt that it's all on them, the responsibility. John would even ask his clients "If you can start your business from scratch, how many of your present people would you rehire?" and most common answer is only around 50%. So many business owners don't put much effort into recruiting as they would, or they should. Then they ending up recruiting on the side of their desk or just kind of an afterthought. Presently, that system isn't going to work anymore. And most business owners haven't really work with professional CFO's or someone who understand their financial status. Therefore, there's a gap between what they need to what are being offered to them by the accounting professional. John would like to remind us that information is cheap, execution is hard. If giving you the information gives you the tool you need, that's awesome. But a lot of times people needs help on how to implement. Then you can go to www.timewithjohn.com and it will take you to my calendar and let's have a short 15-minute chat to see if I can help you.  John's Valuable Free Action (VFA): If you want to have a help with the free resource I gave, then maybe we should talk.

Anirudh Singh sits down with Renaud Laplanche, CEO and Co-founder of Upgrade. In this episode they discuss: - Launching Upgrade after the success of Lending Club - Upgrade's unique product offering, including bitcoin rewards and debit card rewards - What Renaud looks for when partnering with Venture Capital firms - Milestones to reach before taking a company public And much more! Renaud Laplanche Renaud is the co-founder and CEO of Upgrade, Inc. a neobank that offers affordable and responsible credit to mainstream consumers. Under his leadership, Upgrade has reached profitability and a $3Bn+ valuation within 4 years of launch. Prior to Upgrade, Renaud founded and ran Lending Club for 10 years. He took the company public, reaching a market capitalization of $10 billion in December 2014. At Lending Club, Renaud pioneered consumer fintech and grew the company to become the largest provider of personal loans in America. Renaud was ranked #23 in Bloomberg Markets' 2015 Most Influential List, an annual ranking of the World's top 50 most influential leaders across technology, finance, and politics. He was also recognized at the Clinton Global Initiative by President Clinton for expanding access to affordable and responsible credit. In 2014, he won the Economist Innovation Award in the consumer products category and was named the "best start-up CEO to work for" by Business Insider. Renaud was named “Fintech Executive of the Year” by Finovate in 2020. He also holds the Newport-Bermuda world speed sailing record. About Upgrade Upgrade is a neobank that offers affordable and responsible credit to mainstream consumers through personal loans and cards, together with credit monitoring and education tools that help consumers better understand and manage their money. Over $7 billion in loans and cards have been originated by the Upgrade platform since its inception in 2017. Upgrade is headquartered in San Francisco, California. More information is available at: www.upgrade.com. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/wharton-fintech-club/ WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Anirudh's Twitter: twitter.com/avsingh_24

"The hardest lesson for me as a leader? I've chosen to be in this position. I chose to build this business. So it starts with me and it ends with me" The family office was initially created to look after the wealth of ultra high net worth families. But today, the modern-day family office does far more than that and is in fact, acting a whole lot more like a venture investor. Today we talk to Field Pickering, COO, General Counsel and Head of Venture Investing at Vulpes, a family office built off the wealth of Stephen Diggle, who founded Artradis Fund Management. Artradis was an Asian long volatility biased multi strategy alternative asset manager, and at its helm grew assets under management from US$4 million to US$4.7 billion at its peak in 2008. --Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the top US-Asia funders, founders and execs.  From building a unicorn to IPO, and scaling a VC firm - all of these efforts require vision from the leaders at the helm. -- 

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Monish Darda, Co-founder & CTO of Icertis. Icertis is a global SaaS Company from India leading the Contract Lifecycle Management Ecosystem. It is valued at $3Bn, making it one of the most valuable SaaS companies from India, leading the market in its vertical. Through the Episode we discuss the following: 1. (2:25) : Understanding Monish's background & choice of coming back to India after post-graduate studies in the US 2. (5:55) : What Entrepreneurship & Building means for Monish? 3. (12:31) : What is the role of Experience in making the journey more wholesome? 4. (17:21) : Demystifying the rise of Indian Global SaaS 5. (26:05) : The Founding 0 to 1 Journey of Icertis! 6. (34:21) : Product Evolution at Icertis! From Product --> Platform --> Ecosystem 7. (44:53) : The emphasis of People at Icertis --> A masterclass on Culture & great People Practices 8. (54:03) : The Feeling of Building a Global SaaS Unicorn --> The Ability to Dream & Achieving It! 9. (56:52) : Monish's Founder Persona - What keeps him motivated in the short run? 10. (63:37) : What has helped Monish during the challenging times as a Founder? 11. (65:26) : Conclusion Hope you liked the 66th Episode of the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Building the Global CLM Ecosystem. That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) We're available on Instagram & Twitter. Feel free to drop in your feedback! Do not forget to Subscribe to our WhatsApp Newsletter. Do share the Episode with your friends if you liked the content :) I, Jivraj, am reachable on LinkedIn & Twitter! "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

Recorded live Feb. 10, 2021.Q&A with Jack Yujie Yang who led the growth of Mobike, China's leading bikesharing company (acquired by Meituan for $2.7Bn in 2018) as VP of Growth & Product. He grew the company from 4 to over 200 cities, ~500k to over 30 million trips per day. He then joined MissFresh, one of China's grocery delivery unicorns ($3Bn+ valuation) as Chief Growth Officer. He is now working on his own e-commerce startup. We talk about:Growth in the US vs. ChinaSpecific growth tactics used at Mobike and MissFresh, such as red packets, WeChat mini programs, WeChat group chats, etc.Not all of these tactics can work in the US, why?Aside from favorable macroeconomics, some weaknesses Jack perceives in the Chinese market.Difference in (work) culture, equity incentives at Chinese startupsWhy Jack is working on e-commerce as his next opportunityCan mini programs be used effectively to test out new ideas?How do you find cofounders and employees?How do you hire, what do you look for?Influencer fatigue -- how are Chinese platforms combating this, if at all?Lots of great things about China speed, but what are the drawbacks?

Recorded live Feb. 10, 2021.Q&A with Jack Yujie Yang who led the growth of Mobike, China's leading bikesharing company (acquired by Meituan for $2.7Bn in 2018) as VP of Growth & Product. He grew the company from 4 to over 200 cities, ~500k to over 30 million trips per day. He then joined MissFresh, one of China's grocery delivery unicorns ($3Bn+ valuation) as Chief Growth Officer. He is now working on his own e-commerce startup. We talk about:Growth in the US vs. ChinaSpecific growth tactics used at Mobike and MissFresh, such as red packets, WeChat mini programs, WeChat group chats, etc.Not all of these tactics can work in the US, why?Aside from favorable macroeconomics, some weaknesses Jack perceives in the Chinese market.Difference in (work) culture, equity incentives at Chinese startupsWhy Jack is working on e-commerce as his next opportunityCan mini programs be used effectively to test out new ideas?How do you find cofounders and employees?How do you hire, what do you look for?Influencer fatigue -- how are Chinese platforms combating this, if at all?Lots of great things about China speed, but what are the drawbacks?

Robert and Toby continue to unpack some of the most disastrous M&A deals in corporate history. This week it's EBay's costly and disastrous acquisition of Skype. Her's the dot-points.Ebay thought it could leverage Skype to provide a voice and video channel for its customers and sellers to communicate. What they didn't do was talk to their customers, because they would have learned that EBay customers want anonymity and were perfectly happy with messaging and email communication - and they still are today!For whatever reason, EBay paid $2.3Bn for what was a $7M start-up in 2005 and then had to write down $1.4Bn over the course of its ownership of SkypeA serious error by their legal team made sure that the deal went through without the underlying software that was the foundation of Skype - that was still in the hands of the developers post deal!And to top it off, there were the usual cultural clashes that occur when you try and marry a large conservative corporate with an agile, innovative start-up. And that resulted in Skype's leadership team during over 4 times during EBay's ownershipSo there you go. Several ingredients to create a recipe for disaster.The final outcome is that EBay sold Skype off to Microsoft in 2015 for approx $600M and under Microsoft, maybe Skype can re-live its core expertise and carve out a slice of the VOIP market?But just consider this. Zoom did not come into existence until 2011, so Imagine what Skype might look like today if EBay had not made this disastrous acquisition. Food for thought?

Recorded live Feb. 10, 2021. Q&A with Jack Yujie Yang who led the growth of Mobike, China's leading bikesharing company (acquired by Meituan for $2.7Bn in 2018) as VP of Growth & Product. He grew the company from 4 to over 200 cities, ~500k to over 30 million trips per day. He then joined MissFresh, one of China's grocery delivery unicorns ($3Bn+ valuation) as Chief Growth Officer. He is now working on his own e-commerce startup. We talk about: Growth in the US vs. China Specific growth tactics used at Mobike and MissFresh, such as red packets, WeChat mini programs, WeChat group chats, etc. Not all of these tactics can work in the US, why? Aside from favorable macroeconomics, some weaknesses Jack perceives in the Chinese market. Difference in (work) culture, equity incentives at Chinese startups Why Jack is working on e-commerce as his next opportunity Can mini programs be used effectively to test out new ideas? How do you find cofounders and employees? How do you hire, what do you look for? Influencer fatigue -- how are Chinese platforms combating this, if at all? Lots of great things about China speed, but what are the drawbacks? 

What is God up to in the offices of corporate America today? Is it doom and gloom or is the Kingdom advancing and people are jumping in? This interview is with Brandon Haire, VP of Franchise Development for a $2.3Bn global company. He works in their corporate offices in Waco, Texas and has personally seen over 120 salvations in this office alone plus another 120 franchise owners surrendering their life to Christ. To be clear.... this is not a christian company, nor does it have christian policies or promotions. This is simply the fruit of one employee who joined with another and the two of them started to pray. The rest is history.  Enjoy the podcast and grab a copy of Brandon's book The Business Revival on Amazon.

Welcome to Finance and Fury. This episode we will be looking at what is happening in the bond market, how the RBA is struggling to maintain their targets on bond yields for 3y and 10 year - as well as some of its implications on the debt markets and government. What is going on? over the last few weeks there has been a surprise to the markets – the emergence of a higher 10-year rates on government bonds – the rates went up about 0.45% in Feb and 0.55% since the start of the year This was pretty surprising but it actually does make sense in a way – why? To start with – all we have to do is look what has occurred over the past year – Looking back on 2020 there was an unprecedented level of stimulus policies - both fiscal and monetary – QE, corporate bond purchases, ZIRP, stimulus payments The RBA announced on Feb 1 that they were doing an extension to its QE program that they started last year by a further A$100 billion - They have also said it doesn’t expect to increase interest rates until 2024 Both of these are in pursuit of the central bank's yield curve control – as the RBA is trying to target the three-year yield rate at 0.10% The same day as the QE extension announcement, the RBA purchased A$3BN in three-year government bonds This was done in the secondary market and completed on Thursday last week - $3bn might not sound like a lot in the modern era of trillion-dollar stimulus measures - triple the normal amount – the yield on the April 2024 bonds (maturity of the 3-year bonds) declined slightly from 0.13% to 0.125% - decline of about 4% - but then yields soon jumped up to 0.14% before reverting back to their original yield of 0.13% - but remember they are trying to target a yield of 0.1% The RBA is in scramble mode to try and control the yields – through their methods of the Yield Curve Control target of 0.10% on the 3Y Why are they trying to keep rates low? Government funding costs – if you are deficit spending on billions of dollars, the difference between 0.1% and 0.2% is huge The RBAs success and their credibility are starting to fall short on their target - A$3BN of additional QE proved insufficient to get the yield down to the target – as the 3Y Australian bond rate is still at 0.13% - 3bps above It is starting to appear that the RBA's Yield Curve Control is failing as the market is pressuring the central bank's commitment to the point of failure – Free market of bonds – not huge selling of local government bonds in recent days, but there was not a lot of buying. When there is less demand for bonds, bond prices fall and yields rise. So to try and keep yields low – there needs to be more demand which can artificially be created by extensions on QE – or central banks buying back bonds on the secondary market To date though - RBA had been unsuccessful in lowering yields to the levels they want – they have certainly lowered bond yields – but these are still above what they are hoping at the short and long end of the curve – i.e. the 3y and 10y bonds There is naturally an upward pressure on market interest rates – so unless the RBA can get this under control – this will flow through into making it more expensive for Government to borrow – as well as companies to borrow over a 3-to-10-year timeframe This probably won’t affect you or I with mortgage rates – these are not priced off the long-term, 10-year bond yields – the rba cash rate is what matters more to mortgage rates But the Aus governments 10-year borrowing cost has jumped to 1.72% – a doubling of the yield since the RBA officially unveiled its QE program last November This upwards yield is ideal for investors, but not for the government – could threatened to unravel the local bond market – issue with compounding debts at higher yields is that at maturity, more bonds need to be issued to cover the payment, think of a balance transfer but every time the interest rates outside of the grace period starts to increase – compounding the risks that is why the RBA took emergency steps to show markets who's boss with the increase in bond purchases – beyond the 3 year bonds, they will take aim at the longer-term debt the RBA said it is buying A$4BN of longer-dated bonds which is twice the usual amount   However – similar to the 3y yields, the RBA may sit back and watch as their policy has less and less impact in controlling the yields of government debts, as they purchase more and more the RBA now owns $18.5 billion of the $33 billion April 2024 bond – 3y bonds issued As previously mentioned, The RBA have said they don’t expect the cash rate to rise until at least 2024 – but the bond markets are challenging this idea as well - The market is pricing in a jump in rates - with the yield on the November 2024 bond blowing out to 0.36% This has lifted Aus bond rates quite a bit higher than US yields and that means that there will be probably more demand and more buying of Australian bonds - pushing up the Australian dollar The rising AUD also puts pressure on the local economy, and stability of exports in a recovering economy – which puts pressure on the RBA as well to further control interest rate expectations What can the RBA do? They might need to intervene at the longer-end of bond maturity - with more QE because otherwise over focusing on the short term can have spill over effects in the currency market and start to impact other financial markets – like the share market At the end of the day, the RBA have just one solution - to step in and buy more and more bonds with further QE Why is all of this occurring? Why can’t the RBA simply click their fingers and hit their desired targets? Has to do with something else the RBA targets as their primary purpose on monetary policy – inflation targets – something else that central banks are having trouble in achieving as well Due to the monetary and fiscal policy measures - inflation expectations are beginning to rise – gradually initially – but with front-end interest rates almost guaranteed to be zero by the Fed and other central banks – the nominal yield curve started to steepen and assets that attract risk, such as shares entered into a strong rally bond traders are beginning to observe higher levels of inflation across the board – therefore, they think it is only a matter of time before Australia yields go up – why yields are trading above targets To continue looking at this further – to understand why yields are rising requires looking at the relationship of nominal yields, inflation expectations and real yields.  Because higher real yields along with rising inflation expectations can clearly create an environment where nominal yields are rising for good reasons But the real yields remained depressed through 2020 – real returns are nominal minus inflation – this was at the same time that there were deflationary pressures – the tides are turning at the start of this year – and inflation trades can be seen everywhere Looking at the real rates - the composition of the nominal 0.55% increase in the 10-year yields since the beginning of 2021, about 0.20% is from higher inflation expectations and 0.35% is from higher real yields – this has been reflected in the equity markets as well Yields – nominal versus real. Real yields = nominal bond yields minus inflation – these have soared recently The 10-Year real yield has risen 40BP – gone from -1.06% two weeks ago to -0.67% last week – this negative real yield is the highest it has been in 8 months So is this due to inflation moving or nominal rates? Both - inflation expectations have risen, but nominal bond yields have tripled – gone from 0.50% in August last year to around 1.50% At this stage – this rise in nominal rates is the major reason for why real yields are soaring But inflation expectations are beginning to rise at a greater rate – looking at supply shocks coupled with fiscal stimulus plans in the US and worldwide – in the figures of trillions of dollars that are being financed by the government issuing bonds – inflation is expected to follow – whether it does or not, time will tell But if inflation does materialise – CBs have another policy response – increase interest rates – this is what is being priced into yields for bonds longer term – where there is an upwards pressure on yields Interest rate relationship to bond prices – rates go up, then the price of bonds goes down, pushing yields up So the expectation of inflation and the response by CBs is putting pressure on the nominal rates But without constant central bank intervention - the huge increase in bond issuance to finance more and more stimulus spending would naturally push yields even higher – prices go down so yields go up – supply and demand 101 So to avoid governments going insolvent based on the annual interest cost alone, CBs have no choice but to constantly increase their QE programs – either that or collapse the debt markets Also, in basic economics - real yields and inflation expectations rise together when investors expect a stronger, sustained economic recovery – From what economists expect in regards to economic recovery through looking at the data - this process has already begun and an improvement in economic data would then encourage real yields to make nominal yields go up One bit of supporting evidence in this is the increase in commodity prices: iron ore prices have gone beyond $US175 a tonne - the highest level in a decade – this has also contributed to upward pressure on the local exchange rate over the past few months, but is also a big reason for the higher yields in bonds So how high could bond yields go – helps to look long term – looking at the 30-year bonds There is a monthly chart for the 30-Year Treasury Yield that shows that every time the yields exceeded its 100-Month Moving Average, the yields reverted back – this relationship is incredibly reliable - The yields are currently heading back up – the 100-month moving average is currently around 2.75% - current yields are at 2.32% - so if history repeats itself, the yield may go to 2.75-3.00% and then down again This relationship may be due to two reasons – self-fulfilling prophecy where traders can take adventive of this, as well as central banks implementing a Yield Curve Control policy – as they can drive down yields by buying treasury bonds across different maturities No surprise that to implement this means that CBs would need to print more money to buy back bonds from the secondary market   Summary – Yields are on the rise in government debt – as the 10-year bonds are the risk free assets in financial markets, this could have spill over effects into financial markets – shares could soar in relation to the central bank panic and if QE ramps up further But for the next few years, if not longer, CBs will be doing everything in their power to try and target low yields for debt Inflation expectations and in response, interest rate increases are being prices in and also pushing up bond yields Help to avoid governments being in financial stress Next episode – look at the flow on effects to sectors of financial markets, the dollar, shares, and commodities Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to get in contact you can do so here: http://financeandfury.com.au/contact/

In Episode 16 host Matt Ward unveils the new-look Running Industry Podcast with exciting changes and developments to the format. Firstly, the longer-form, interview style with amazing guests that we have had in the first 15 episodes is going nowhere and will continue to be the mainstay of the podcast. We've had some incredible feedback on the podcasts and the listener numbers are growing each week. However, as the podcast landscape changes almost week-by-week across the globe, and so there will now be even more Running Industry Podcasts, with even more variety.Firstly, as of this week, we start the ‘Running Industry Podcast – Weekly News' pod i.e this one!  which will go out on a Weds. This will be short-form, under 10 minutes normally, and be a bulletin format on news and hot topics in the Running Industry.Secondly,  we will also be introducing the ‘Brand Spotlight' episodes. These will be released regularly and focus on brands, from footwear, to electronics, from apparel to nutrition to training and tracking. Typically 30 mins or so, we'll take deep-dive into brands and their news, new products and their future direction. The re-branded ‘In Conversation with'  long-form pods will also be released regularly and still feature amazing guests with fantastic stories as we delve into the background and thoughts of those people that make the Running Industry so rich and diverse.  We have some fantastic guests coming up over the next couple of months including ultra-running legend Anna Frost, former GB athlete, cross country great and now New Balance endurance coach to many Olympic marathon hopefuls, Steve Vernon, Rhys Jenkins the Welsh ultramarathon runner, who will be attempting the mind-blowing Three Peaks JOGLE record in the coming months. Yes, that's right, John O'Groats to Land's End including the highest mountain peaks in Scotland, England and Wales along the way and finally in late March we'll be chatting to the founder of the Reebok brand, Joe Foster, discussing his fantastic book, Shoe Maker and look back at his life in building the Reebok brand, from humble beginnings in Bolton, England through to its sale for over $3BN!Listen and subscribe via all podcast providers and via the Running Industry Podcast websitewww.runningindustrypodcast.comIG @runindustry Tw @runindustryYou can also show your support by donating to the running industry podcast via Patreon www.patreon.com/runningindustrypodcast Host: Matt WardProduced by amplifi www.amplifi.mediaIG @amplifimedia TW @amplifimedia_All episodes of the running industry podcast are ©supersonic productions

Assaf Wand is the Founder & CEO @ Hippo Insurance, with over $700M in funding Hippo are setting a new standard for home insurance and offer protection for what’s important to today’s homeowner. Nima Ghamsari is the Founder & CEO @ Blend, with over $665M in funding they are the digital platform streamlining the journey from application to close — for every banking product. Max Simkoff is the Founder & CEO at States Title, with $229M in funding States Title are using machine intelligence to create a vastly more simple and efficient closing experience for lenders, real estate professionals, and homebuyers. Brendan Wallace is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fifth Wall, with over $1.3Bn in commitments and AUM across multiple different vehicles, they are the largest venture firm focused on the real estate industry and property technology for the Built World. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) 3 of the largest and most successful founders in the financial real estate market, what have been their biggest learnings from their friendship over the last 5 years? What have been some of the most hotly debated topics they have had as a group? How did their opinions and views change as a result? 2.) How do they think and feel about the tech exodus from Silicon Valley, temporary movement due to COVID or fundamental shift? How closely correlated is the move out of California with the explosion of liquidity from IPOs and acquisitions? What pisses Max off most about people leaving CA currently? 3.) How have their roles as leaders changed in the time of COVID? What have been the most challenging elements? What have they had to embrace? What have they had to disregard or stop? What advice do they give to other founders scaling into hyper-growth in a remote format? 4.) What do they believe is the fundraising strategy that allowed them to raise over $1.5Bn as a group? How do they think about what they look for in each stage of investors? How does it change when entering growth stages? How has their experience been having corporates play a large role in their financing? What are the biggest challenges of working with corporates? What does one need to do to extract the most value from them? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode Max’s Favourite Book: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

As President Biden takes his oath of office on this day, we would like to use such an event to bring together different US and British companies to hear from someone at the sharp edge of future planning a city and to see what issues are shared with London. There will also be facilitated networking and plenty of chance to chat and connect.Joy Sinderbrand, the Vice President for NYCHA's Recovery and Resilience Department.Formed in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Joy's department is responsible for managing a $3Bn budget aimed at repairing developments throughout New York impacted by Sandy, incorporating resilient design that will guide future construction throughout NYCHA’s portfolio.The New York City Housing Authority is the body in charge of increasing opportunities for low and moderate income New Yorkers to access safe, affordable housing and facilitating social and community services. Support the show (https://www.urbanonetwork.co.uk/membership)

Tamar Yehoshua is the Chief Product Officer @ Slack, the company providing a place where people get work done, together. Prior to their direct listing in June 2019, Slack raised over $1.3Bn from the likes of Accel, Thrive, Softbank, Kleiner, IVP, T Rowe, GV, and a16z to name a few. As for Tamar, previously, Tamar was a Vice President at Google, holding product and engineering leadership roles on Google’s most important products, including Search, Identity, and Privacy. Prior to that, she was the Vice President of Advertising Technologies at Amazon’s A9. If that was not enough Tamar is also on the board of 2 public companies in the form of Yext and ServiceNow.  In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Tamar made her way from Google and Amazon into the world of bottoms up SaaS with one of the leading companies of our generation, Slack? What were Tamar’s biggest takeaways from her time with Amazon and Google? How did Jeff Bezos’ approach to “the customer” impact Tamar’s operating mindset? How does Tamar analyse customer responses to product changes? How important a role does the press play in customer’s responses?  How does Tamar think about effective product design today? How does Tamar structure the customer development process? What questions does she ask? What is she looking for? Where do many people go wrong with customer discovery? What channels can teams put in place to have this real-time dialogue with their customers?         How would Tamar describe her management philosophy today? What have been some of Tamar’s biggest lessons on giving effective feedback? How should it be structured? When should it be given? To what extent does Tamar agree with “radical candour”? Where do many go wrong in giving their feedback? Tamar’s 60 Second SaaStr: The most challenging element of Tamar’s role with Slack? What would Tamar most like to change about the SaaS industry? What moment in Tamar’s life has served as an inflection point and changed the way she thinks?  If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr

Alexis Ohanian is the Founder @ Seven Seven Six, his new fund which just recently announced their first investment leading the $4M seed round for Dispo. Prior to founding Seven Seven Six, Alexis was the Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Initialized Capital, where he backed many a unicorn including Ro, Flexport, Patreon, GOAT just to name a few. Alexis is also the co-founder @ Reddit, commonly referred to as the front page of the internet, their latest valuation priced the company at $3Bn. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) When Alexis left his L Sats to go get waffles, what did he learn about himself? How did that lead to founding Reddit? How did Reddit lead to angel investing? How did that lead to Initialized? 2.) Why did Alexis leave Initialized? Why was now the right time? What worked with Initialized that he has taken with him to Seven Seven Six? What did not work with Initialized that he has learned from? How does he view VC NPS as a result of this and the learnings? 3.) How does Alexis analyse his own relationship to money today? How did his relationship with his mother and her illness impact how he thinks about wealth and happiness? How did he feel when at 22 he sold Reddit? How does he feel about the "keeping up with the Jones'" mentality? 4.) How did having Olympia change how Alexis operates and invests today? How does Alexis define backing projects he would be proud to talk to Olympia about? How does he feel about the type of deals many investors make today? 5.) How did Alexis first meet PG from YC? How did he feel when he heard he believed in him and Steve with Reddit? How did that change how Alexis feels about being the first person to really back someone? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode Alexis’ Favourite Book: Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction Alexis’ Most Recent Investment: Dispo As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Stewart Butterfield is the Founder & CEO @ Slack, the leading channel-based messaging platform, used by millions to align their teams, unify their systems and drive their businesses forward. Prior to their direct listing in June 2019, Stewart raised over $1.3Bn from the likes of Accel, Thrive, Softbank, Kleiner, IVP, T Rowe, GV and a16z to name a few. Prior to founding Slack, Stewart co-founded Flickr, a company he built into one of the largest web services in the world. Due to his many incredible successes, Stewart has been named to the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine, and one of the Top 50 Leaders by BusinessWeek. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Stewart made his way into the world of startups and came to found Flickr? What was his founding moment for the Slack journey? 2.) How does Stewart think about and assess his relationship to money? How has it changed over time? What does Stewart believe are the 3 levels of wealth? How does Stewart think about his identity being tied to the company? Is that a challenge? How does he mitigate it? 3.) How does Stewart describe his management style and philosophy today? How has it changed over time? How does Stewart approach reversible vs irreversible decisions? How does Stewart structure post-mortems? Why does Stewart believe effective entrepreneurship is like parkour? 4.) How does Stewart think about and advise on the debate between direct listing, IPO and SPAC? What has been better/worse and different since making the transition to being a public company? What have been some of the biggest surprises? 5.) Why does Stewart believe that for most companies, comprehension is the reason for the lack of adoption and customer acquisition? How does he look to solve that with Slack? What have been their biggest mistakes on messaging and branding? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode Stewart’s Favourite Book: Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box, Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, The Courage To Be Disliked As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

MLOps community meetup #42! Last Wednesday, we talked to Mark Craddock, Co-Founder & CTO, Global Certification and Training Ltd (GCATI), about UN Global Platform. // Abstract: Building a global big data platform for the UN. Streaming 600,000,000+ records / day into the platform. The strategy developed using Wardley Maps and the Platform Design Toolkit. // Bio: Mark contributed to the Cloud First policy for the UK Public sector and was one of the founding architects for the UK Governments G-Cloud programme. Mark developed the initial CloudStore which enabled the UK Public Sector to procure cloud services from over 2,500 suppliers. The UK Public Sector has now purchased over £6.3Bn of cloud services, with £3.6Bn from Small to Medium Enterprises in the UK. Mark lead the development of the United Nations Global Platform. A multi-cloud platform for capacity building within the national statistics offices in the use of Big Data and its integration with administrative sources, geospatial information, traditional survey and census data. Mark is now building a non-profit training and certification organization. // Final thoughts Please feel free to drop some questions you may have beforehand into our slack channel (https://go.mlops.community/slack) Watch some old meetups on our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG6qpjVnBTTT8wLGBygANOQ ----------- Connect With Us ✌️------------- Join our Slack community: https://go.mlops.community/slack Follow us on Twitter: @mlopscommunity Sign up for the next meetup: https://go.mlops.community/register Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/ Connect with Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcraddock/

Craig Borkowski is the CEO of Terra Sound Technology, a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), headquartered in Columbus. Terra Sound was founded on a passion for creating thoughtful solutions for their Customers, delivered through Terra Sound's Software and Fiber Optic Cable. Their Mission is to solve your Security, Smart City, and Pipeline problems.Craig graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Over the past 25-years, he has worked extensively in the electronic materials field in a variety of positions. Craig started out in Operations and has held roles in Engineering, Technical Service, R&D, Marketing, Business Development and as General Manager at a variety of global multinationals. Before Terra Sound, his most recent role was as Chief Strategy Officer of Momentive, a $3Bn silicones manufacturer with approximately 5,000 employees.Craig is a seasoned leader with a strong leadership style. His ability to think through a grand strategy, focusing on core competencies and growth opportunities for the company will enable Terra Sound Technology to continue our rapid growth that has been happening over the past year.• Connect with Craig on LinkedIn.• Learn more about Terra Sound: www.terrasound.us

Finding Your Voice As A Speaker James Taylor interviews Paul N. Larsen and they talked about Finding Your Voice As A Speaker In today's episode Paul N. Larsen they talk about Finding Your Voice As A Speaker. Paul N. Larsen is an engaging leadership speaker, executive coach and the author of the award-winning book, Find Your VOICE as a Leader. As a former Chief Human Resources officer for a $3BN corporation, Paul has over 30 years of business leadership experience with such organisations as Charles Schwab, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Adobe. A member of the respected Forbes Coaches Council and a proud introvert, Paul currently coaches leaders at such companies as Twitter, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Autodesk, Walmart, and SAP. And he loves to demonstrate his disarming extroversion by speaking on leadership to groups and professional associations in the US and Asia. What we cover: Starting in keynote speaking Finding Your Voice As A Speaker The dangers of going broad Resources: Paul N. Larsen Website Paul's LinkedIn Please SUBSCRIBE ►http://bit.ly/JTme-ytsub ♥️ Your Support Appreciated! If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on YouTube, iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief review. That would really help get the word out and raise the visibility of the Creative Life show. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple: http://bit.ly/TSL-apple Libsyn: http://bit.ly/TSL-libsyn Spotify: http://bit.ly/TSL-spotify Android: http://bit.ly/TSL-android Stitcher: http://bit.ly/TSL-stitcher CTA link: https://speakersu.com/the-speakers-life/ FOLLOW ME: Website: https://speakersu.com LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/JTme-linkedin Instagram: http://bit.ly/JTme-ig Twitter: http://bit.ly/JTme-twitter Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IS-fbgroup Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/finding-your-voice-as-a-speaker-sl084/ James Taylor Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150 top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com, where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit. Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com but not before you listen to today's episode. Hey, there is James Taylor. I'm delighted today to be joined by Paul N. Larsen port and an engaging leadership speaker, executive coach and the author of the award winning book find your voice as a leader. As a former Chief Human Resource Officer for $3 billion Corporation Paul has over 30 years of business leadership experience with such organizations as Charles Schwab Bristol Myers Squibb and Adobe, a member of the respected Forbes coaches Council and a proud introvert Paul currently coaches leaders as such companies such as Twitter, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Autodesk, Walmart and sap. And he loves to demonstrate his disarming extraversion by speaking on leadership to groups and professional organizations in the US and Asia. It's my great pleasure to have Paul join us today. So welcome, Paul. Paul N. Larsen Thank you, James. Thank you, you know, as as you're reading that the introvert amigos, oh my gosh. And then when you say disarming extraversion, which of course I wrote, I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna show that out a little bit more. So just a little bit of where I'm at right now, with that intro. James Taylor Lovely speaking, we're gonna be speaking at an event, a conference in Singapore really soon. So I'm looking forward to getting a chance to hang out there as well. But what have you been asked what projects are currently taking your focus? Paul N. Larsen Ah, you know, James, it's a great, it's been a little bit of everything. So So I like to dabble in a little bit of the speaking. So I do, I have the honor of being able to speak in Southeast Asia quite a bit. So. So working on some of the speeches I'm doing over there, the one that you mentioned in Singapore. And then with a foundation called together, we can change the world, which was founded, actually, by NSA members, Scott Friedman, and Jana Stanfield. So we have a tour coming up where we're going to be touring in Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Part of that is we go and speak on leadership, disruptive leadership. So I have the honor of being able to, to to speak in those particular cities. I'm primarily a lot of my time back domestically here in the states is focused on executive coaching. So I have the pleasure of working as you as you name some of the companies, but more or less important than the companies are the people that I work with the leaders in these organizations who really want to make a difference, who really want to make an impact, yet, you know, they're kind of like struggling, like so many of us do. How do I do that? What is my brand, and what is my legacy? So those are a little bit of everything else I'm doing. And then I leave tomorrow for I'm going on a just a nice vacation to Japan. So I'm just going to be able to kind of immerse myself in a in a little bit different culture, and enjoy sort of the learning environment that takes when you travel, and you just kind of like not traveling for work, so to speak, but just kind of traveled to say, Hey, I'm in a new place. And let's see what I can learn. James Taylor So the speaking part, you got the executive coaching the speaking the author, part of you, the speaking part of you, how did that get started? When When did you start getting into the keynotes side? Especially? Paul N. Larsen That's a great, that's a great question. Um, it takes me back to my history. I it started back in 2009. And I had, you know, one of my, one of my things is, is is one of my tenants and best practices are always try to coach myself and coach my leaders on is have a vision for yourself to establish that vision and outcome. Well, I didn't do that. I mean, it was like so so I learned from what I needed to do. In 2009, I had a wonderful job at Adobe, it was an incredible job. It had all the perks, wonderful people wonderful company, great climate, I was not engaged, had nothing to do with the organization had everything to do with, I knew I had something inside of me that needed to come out. I wasn't sure what that was. I didn't think it was like an alien thing that had to come out. But I wasn't sure what it was. I knew it was a message. And I was at my father's memorial service who had a wonderful, wonderful life. And I was listening to what they were saying about him as a person and his legacy. And all these people were getting up James and literally just talking about what a wonderful man, he wasn't the difference he made in their lives. And I'm literally sitting there and it was one of those moments we have in our lives. It was just Oh, it was zing. And I said what are they going to say about me? It's that classic story we hear, but it really happened. I'm sitting in the church. I'm sitting there In a hard hardback Pew, and I'm like, what are they going to say about me? My father, my father is a created this brand and legacy for himself. And they touched all these wonderful people. What are they going to say, Oh, he was a great HR leader. He helped people with their compensation plans, he helped the restructuring, he laid off 900 people here, he hired 1000 people here, and I'm thinking, that's not the legacy I want to author. That's not what I wanted to do. So fast forward, what I the decisions I made, James was to leave Adobe, with some planning go out on my own. So it wasn't about going to another company, establishing myself as an executive coach. By doing that. I, I established myself also as an expert in the coaching arena, or the leadership arena, at least according to some of the people that that that provided me feedback, which then led to speaking engagements. So I didn't sit here and think, Oh, I want to be a speaker. I want to speak more. In fact, I got to tell you, I wasn't even as aware of professional speaking as maybe I should have been, I certainly been exposed to speakers and at events and corporate events and conferences. But it wasn't like I had a direct path to that. It was sort of like, by way of my path of finding my expertise. People then said, oh, maybe this is something you could speak about to this group of people. And my first speaking gig was to a, an ecology Physicians Group and, and it ended up like, do you can you speak on leadership for 45 minutes, and I did, and they handed me a check. And I'm like, Oh, you gotta be kidding me. Like, really. And I knew that there's a much more hard work around that if I really wanted to build a business. But that was enough of an enticement for me. But now James Taylor I mentioned to you, you caught your class yourself as an introvert. And so which I think is interesting, because a lot of the guests I've had on here, either with a said on camera, or I because I happen to know them personally, as well. They would also maybe describe myself as an introvert, which is kind of weird when you think about our jobs is kind of getting up on stage in front of thousands of people as well. So you, you work with a lot of people who maybe the job title is not to Nestle to get on the stage, but as leaders, they are, they have to go on stage as part of their part of their role as well. So do you see any patterns? Are there more more speakers, introverts and extroverts? Or is it is it really a bit of a mix, Paul N. Larsen you know, without any statistical evidence, right? And and I'm not going to be one who's going to cite all the empirical data, because I'll be proven wrong, the minute it comes out of my mouth, um, I would say it's probably a good mix. And what it requires is what you just said, a certain self awareness to really understand where you get your energy from, you know, how do you how do you replenish that energy, because that's the difference between introverts and extroverts. introverts can certainly be on stage, they can certainly perform in a Broadway show, as sometimes we do when we're on stage, they can certainly speak as in an expressive manner, as I tend to do, as you see my hands flying around. But when I need to replenish when I need to, to, to really restore my energy, I need to be by myself, I need to set the boundaries of being solo, a solo practitioner, so to speak, in order to do that extroverts need the group energy to kind of restore that energy. So that's the difference between styles. And that's where sometimes I think, to your point, the contradiction does come up, because people will say to me, you're not an introvert, because the conventional wisdom is, introverts don't want to be on stage has nothing to do with that. I enjoy being onstage, I enjoy sharing my message, I enjoy serving the audience. It has to do though, with when I'm the downtime I need in order to restore my capabilities for the next event. And to your point around leadership. That's a really, really great insight that you just gave. And and I would add to that, leaders are always on stage. So leaders always are on stage, no matter if it's a structured stage, or if it's just a stage and of course, in their in their organization. They are always on stage. They're always being watched. And they're always, you know, people are always gauging their performance. When I work with leaders, a lot of them tend to come from the technology arena. So they come up through engineering, they come up through different different avenues, where they're used to kind of being by themselves, and then they realize they've taken on this new role, and they need to figure out okay, how do I take what I have and expand it and become a little bit more expressive in my brand and my presence, and that's where I can help because I understand where they're coming from from an introversion piece. James Taylor That reminds me a little bit of one of my great heroes on this in the speaking world, or actually northward is a guy called Edward de Bono who Greg Creativity, lateral thinking. And I remember seeing years ago seeing him on the stage and just being completely mesmerized, not because he was, it was a very, you know, he's moving around the stage a lot or anything, but his ideas were just so powerful. But then I subsequently spoke to people that know and work with him saying, he has the worst small chat person. He just doesn't like being in large groups of people and doing that he loves being on the stage and teaching because he's the teacher. And he loves having maybe one on one deep one on one conversations with people. But he really, he really enjoys the other stuff, you know, going to the cocktail receptions and some of the things that can come from some things you have to do as a speaker. Paul N. Larsen Right, exactly, no, and I can certainly understand that. And I understand as being a speaker, as speakers, as we all are, that's part of our business as well. So when that does come up is certainly at conferences, I have to be very deliberate with my time. And I have to be very deliberate with my energy so that I show up in a very consistent manner. So that what the way I am on stage, people will also reflect that in terms of my consistency when I'm offstage, because we hear that a lot, right? Oh, that person on stage is different than the person offstage. And even though we might have a different style, when we're on stage versus certainly off, I want to be consistent with the relationships that I develop, knowing that I do that I'm not going to be after I'm on stage, that I'm not going to be able to be there 24 seven, because I'm going to need to go back to the room, and really just be with myself in order to kind of restore that energy. That's a really good point. Now you James Taylor you've spoke about this, to having this voice model to building your brand as a speaker, can we start going going going through that? First of all, I mean, how Where did that come from something that can create a model around building brands is just something you were you trying to figure out yourself? Because it was it was applied to you? Or were you starting to coach? You've mentioned coaching executives, who were maybe transitioning to being speakers as well, when did that begin? Paul N. Larsen All of that? I mean, it was, you want to talk about a gift, right? I mean, it was a gift that was kind of just given to me, and it was absolutely a journey that I took so so upon, upon leaving Adobe upon sort of really discovering what my passion is around coaching. And, and, and the the impact that I can make as a coach and the learning that I can bring into myself as a coach. It really was around Paul, you've got a voice, let's use it. And it was one of my clients that I was with and had a significant organization there. And I kept telling him, we were talking to him. And we as we were coaching, I said, how best can you use your voice? How best can you get out and build your voice as a leader? He looked at me. And he said, that's your brand. Paul, he said, If there's one thing that I connect with you, it's the voice. It's finding your voice as a leader. And James, it was another one of those big zing moments. I have these moments all the time in my life, right, you have to be open for them, you have to learn from them. And I get zinged all the time. And I look at it as a great thing. But it was, it was like, Wow, he just gave me my brand. Um, before that I was just kind of Paulie the coat, right. And then I said, find your voice as a leader. So I played around with that a little bit more certainly used him as a wonderful pilot. And I took the voice, I took the voice, obviously word and made an acronym around it, to say, look, what what's the what's the journey I went through, what's the first thing we do when you build your voice as a leader or find your voice. And it really was around the values, your outcomes, your influence, your courage, and your expression. And it really is sometimes it can be sequentially, and sometimes they might be consecutively. It all depends on the person and where they are. And it applies to a lot of different pieces of our lives, whether it's finding your voice as a leader, finding your voice, as a trainer, finding your voice as a speaker, I've done all of these types of avenues, but it's discovering those values, establishing those outcomes, demonstrating your influence, stepping into your courage, and then crafting your overall expression. And when I put all that together, and I worked through the exercises and activities that I went through, and that I was successful and maybe not as successful in and then I use with my clients. That's how I built the model. James Taylor So one of the kind of dangers I guess by doing an event like this an online summit, there's someone here from all these, you know, over 100 speakers, and it can be a little bit discombobulating because you will hear opposing views on something and so I'm interested you mentioned like values right at the start because this is this is how I personally figure this stuff out is is I will be tend to be attracted to taking or maybe that that particular speakers strategy or model or how they're building something because they have a similar value. with similar values, to me, that's just my way of navigating, is that the way to think about it, because I'm just conscious that this is as we've talking about this just now. And if someone's going through the summit, they're going to get a lot of information, this could be maybe some way of helping them sort and sift what's gonna be relevant to themselves. Paul N. Larsen Yeah, the way and that's an excellent, first of all, it's an excellent call out. And second of all, it's also an excellent sort of action to take. Because when you when you're when you're exposed to all of this great information and great content, how do you filter it, and and the key on this what what my voice model really, really works on is being very deliberate. When I when I work with leaders, when I work with speakers, when I work with any anybody, including myself, we tend to just kind of react and I could imagine going, I know when I've gone through summits like this, and conferences, we can we tend to just kind of react to what we hear sometimes, when in fact, what you want to do is take a step back, what is it that you actually value? What's the purpose of why you're going through this experience? What's the outcome you're looking for? So always tie a purpose to an outcome? What's the deliberate action you want to take from that? And then out of that will cascade your value? So like, if you really think about what are your top three values you have in your life? And for me, when I went through that exercise, it's it's not complex, it's really trying to figure out what are those top three values that that you value that you live your life by? It's your it's kind of like your inner DNA, there's not energy and I guess it's your, it's your inner GPS, right? Um, I do that with leaders. And a lot of times what leaders will tend to do, and I think we do this as humans, they will list off values, they think people want to hear, oh, I value feedback, I value community open communication, I, you know, and all of a sudden, I look up on the wall, and that's the values of the organization, right? It's like, No, no, no, sit with yourself, quietly, list out all the values that guide you, you know, whether there be whether it be, you know, a lot to do with relationships with with financial freedom, what are those values, right that you have, and then that will also then guide you in terms of the decisions you make. And then you're in terms of the outcomes and vision you want to have for yourself, especially as a speaker, I hear a lot of people say, I want to speak, I want to speak more, I want to speak in internet, I want to be a global speaker, I want to speak internationally. That to me doesn't show necessarily a an articulate of articulation of values. It also doesn't show necessarily a vision. What's the endgame? Like? What is it that you want out of that? What is that vision of that? So that's kind of a way that I would kind of navigate some of this. James Taylor Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good point, listen, because it is, I mean, there's a lot of information coming out of them. And so I think just taking a little bit of time, it was a start just many of you will already have done this in your own practice, you'd have set and then you have good sense of your values, maybe it makes sense you haven't really done yet. But I think it's a really valuable thing to do. Because you're going to hear during the course the summit, you're going to hear one person or that person says that thing, that was the things always bear in mind, they're all they're all starting at completely different places, usually in different parts of the world. And they and they have different value values. And if you can try and figure out and then you can continue, ask yourself, so that so we move on to the values as the first point, having a strong sense of your, your outcome. You mentioned like purpose and outcome, you can use those inside different ways. Can you explain that? Paul N. Larsen Absolutely. So So, you know, I always like to say, when I'm working with myself, when I'm working with leaders, what's the purpose of why you're doing what you're doing? What's the purpose of that communication? What's the purpose of that meeting? What's the purpose of that action, you're going to take? In a much grandiose scheme? If you are building your speaking business? What's the purpose? Why are you going into speaking? What's the purpose of that? And then tied to purpose? Are the outcomes? What are the outcomes you are looking for? What's the vision that's tied to that purpose? Many times I hear that I want I want I desire I desire I intend I intend. But what I don't see connecting to that are the outcomes or the actions associated with those intentions, or associated with that purpose. So building your outcomes really is like even if it's just for your vision for next week, for next month, for next year, or for your business, that really is making sure that is tied directly to your overall purpose, because many times they're disconnected. And then people wonder why they don't follow through on certain things. They wonder why there's there's no there's no outcome or any kind of action associated with it because they have haven't actually tied those two together? Yeah, so one of the first things I do is that with coaching is you tie purpose to outcome. And and and you don't have one without the other. And and what it does is it creates a very keen discipline of making sure that you take action associated with any purpose or any intention you have, James Taylor as well good coach does is ensuring there's accountability towards those outcomes. So every week or when you speak, you can do you can have coming back to that, and also kind of reconnecting it with that with that purpose as well. And I think one of the things we've heard time and time again, probably people maybe getting a bit bored by it, but almost every guest is either spoken about the importance of having a mentor in what they were doing in terms of bonus or a coach. And because under this slightly different kind of roles, and to some of them, some of them, it's not honestly even with a mentor, but it's not even a person that the they actually know it's a person. That is because they know so much they read so much of their books, and it's almost like another character is another character, but they can ask themselves and be quite certain of what the answer would be is that wish I go next? And they can do almost asking to that, that fictional character, or that character, this right thing as well? Paul N. Larsen Absolutely no. And that's a really good point, because you absolutely want to use all the resources that are available to you. But you also to your point, you want to do it in a very deliberate fashion. You want to make sure that you are seeking a mentor, or seeking a coach, or seeking a teacher, whatever whatever the role might be. But it's very deliberate. Again, what's the purpose of why you're seeking a coach, I can't tell you how many times sometimes I will be I will be engaged to talk to people around around a coaching partnership. And when I get in there, and I ask, Why are you looking for a coach? Why now? What's the purpose? They don't have any answers to that they just thought it would be a good idea. They haven't necessarily worked through all of the deliberate steps necessary to really think, why do I need a coach? Am I coachable? What would I be? What's the outcome that I'm looking for? The same holds true when we go through summits like these, and when we attend conferences, or anything else, we tend to want to pull like you were saying from things, but do it in a very deliberate fashion. So when you're seeking resources, and you're seeking assistance, make sure it's very deliberate, and it's tied to, okay, this is my purpose. In order to get the outcome I need, I'm going to need a coach or mentor or some type of help to bridge that, yeah, they're in the eyes right there. That's a brilliant algorithm in order for success, because you've got a clear purpose, a clear outcome, and then the coach or mentor can help you within that within fill in that gap. James Taylor And the next part of this is the influence piece in that you're making building relationships, not just with coaches and mentors, also building relationships with people in the industry, you know, as a speaker, whether that's with, you know, other speakers or meeting professionals, or CEOs, decision makers, as well. So, what what the speakers need to be aware of when they're thinking about the influence part of that. Paul N. Larsen So the influences is exactly that. It's building those relationships, but it's building those relationships. You know, it's that old, it's not so much the quantity, James, it's the quality, right? A lot of times, again, when you go into a field, such as speaking, it's around it, get to know as many people as you can build your network, build your network, boost your email list, build your email list, get names, names, names, names, names, and all of a sudden it becomes quantity. And we lose sight of the quality or the qualitative piece. The relationships have to be built on trust and respect, always. And And so again, going back to being very deliberate, what are the relationships, you're going to need to achieve that vision or those outcomes that you've created for yourself? How do you build those relationships? How do you demonstrate that trust and respect and how do you go about doing that? So So again, it sounds common sense. But I think in today's world, especially with social media, which I'm a huge fan of, and I'm all over social media, but I do it also very deliberately. And I try to be very trustworthy and respectful in my social media platform and footprint, as I build those relationships. But I think today, we can just we can we can have connections all over the place. We can have likes all over the place, we can tweet all over the place. We're not necessarily doing it with it with a deliberate fashion of building influential relationships. I see it in organizations. And I think it happens in our industry as well. James Taylor And you mentioned going to Japan is something maybe remember, when I first started working in Japan, it was it was quite interesting to see the difference between in the West will be quite transactional here and our relationships. I'm going to do this for you because I expect this but and it's so it can be very transactional, where I remember in in Japan doing business in Japan, actually, we spent about maybe three to five years just building relationships, building trust, before any Anything was ever, ever done. But the interesting thing that happened by doing that, and just just building trust and being, you know, being a respectable kind of building that trust over time, is that when that trust was eventually solidified, it was it was just like, took off like a rocket, because the nature of this industry is exactly the same. It's one of everyone talks, people are talking, they know that that person is a good person to work with, they know that that person does, as they said, they know that person is going to show up and, and, and give a great performance. But it does take a little bit of time to build that trust and build those relationships. Paul N. Larsen Yeah, it's the you just nailed it, it's the, it's the, you need to spend a little bit of time at the upfront piece, right. And building those relationships takes time. And we're, and you're right, in our society, we're so used to instant gratification. now now now, and that whole transactional piece, so I do think we need to, you really need to take the time to build the trust and the respect, because that's going to then build your brand. And and we see that all the time in any kind of, it doesn't matter what industry you're in, or whatever role you play, that really taking that time upfront will pay off in the long run. But we are in a society where conventional wisdom almost forces us to say no, no, no, no, no, just go go, go, go, go, here's all the ways you need to do it. Here's all the ways you can make money, here's all the ways you can do this. Just go go go go go. And we lose sight of that the discipline of really building that trust, and that respect that other cultures and societies do so well. James Taylor It's almost a little bit. I know that with people like Matt church, and Peter Cook, head on here from Australia talk about this, between a business and a practice. Most speakers, you really have practices, you don't have a business, it's not something you're ever going to naturally sell. It's you if your doctor's practice, or your topic is really you, which means that the trust piece is even more important, because it's you, you know, you have a relationship. So so you're thinking about this thing, much longer term than then a company with Nestle thinking about quarterly results, or I just need to get through this, this one year bump or whatever the thing is, you have to think much more longer term. Paul N. Larsen Absolutely. You know, I'm sure I think there's a book out there now, and I'm probably quoting it, the brand is you, right? It is when you are a speaker or a coach, it is you and even if you're affiliated with another company, or organization or group of folks, you are still representing yourself. That was a that to your point around my journey. That was a very deliberate decision. When I went out on my own, I branded myself with my name, right, which is, again, what most speakers do, most coaches do. Yes, I have a model that I use and a tagline. But it's my name associated with that I had to then make. And I remember having this conscious decision, I do a lot of self coaching, I have a lot of dialogues with myself, that if I was going to do that, I had to make sure that I wore that brand out here. And every behavior I did every action I took every decision I make represent adapt, because I then knew I was putting myself out there. And I had to build the trust, the credibility, the respect, all those things. It wasn't about likability, it was about trust, respect and credibility. But I remember having that decision with myself in that conversation to say, that is what I'm going to have to do versus being within a company where sometimes you can kind of get away with hiding a little bit here hiding a little bit there. No, you're I was all exposed. And that was that took courage for me to in which to do that, which is the next piece and invoice right. It was like stepping out of my comfort zone around that. James Taylor And so on that piece in the courage, the one of the ones I often think about when you mentioned that word courage, I think about how as a speaker or kind of anything, when you're going out and you're in a solopreneur it's very easy to want to just Who do you speak to? I speak anyone? What do you speak about I can think of anything? And so focusing and niching I think that takes great courage, because is willing to say this is this is what I think I'm good at this is this is my thing. And and and I'm going to take that risk on that. So when you were kind of going into your speaking business, did that require a lot of courage for you to really focus on what what you actually want the speaker to speak about? Paul N. Larsen Oh, James, you know, you nailed it with me on that one? That absolutely did it setting boundaries for yourself. It's setting boundaries for your brand, for your market, for your business for your niche, all those things. Absolutely. And I'm a learn, I learned by experiences. So I learned by all the mistakes I made and the successes. I to your point. I was one of those people like I this speaking thing was great. I can speak there, I'll speak for you. I'll do this, I'll do that. And I had a couple of experiences where I was not the best speaker for that particular event. And I showed up that way. Because I did anything wrong personally, or I did anything wrong on stage, it just was not a match based on what they needed. And based on what I could provide, I thought, Oh, yeah, I can do that I can do that I can be the the generalist for that. And then when I got up there, and I realized, Oh, this was not working. So it was a great learning experience for me. In terms of, okay, Paul, you have a certain expertise, you have a certain modality and methodology, you have a certain style, that is not going to be reflected in to every everybody that is going to need a speaker and is going to need, you cannot serve all the audiences. And that that was an experience for me. And I, I had to really be humble around that. And I had to really be humbled with the groups that I that I had a couple of episodes where I learned that, and that's how I had learned it. Right. And, and sort of that feedback. And now that that journey of going through that. And you're absolutely right, that took a lot of courage. And it took it takes a lot of courage to say, I'm not going to be the speaker for everybody, I'm going to be the speaker for this particular domain or this particular pillar. James Taylor And the only way I was able to come for me is to come to peace with that was a stat that Simon t Bay, the great speakers told me and he said in America now there's 1.8 million conferences every year. And I think 1.3 million of them requires seekers and another friend of mine pretty current who's who's working with Big Pharma is speaking to a pharmaceutical company. He said, they have 40,000 speakers every year. And that allows me to go okay, I don't have this is perfect. I could just focus on this. There's so much there's so much work out there, there's so much opportunity out there as well, especially when you get to company and you speak in, you know, in organized companies, which you don't see advertised all their internal meetings, sales, focused meetings, and is is easy to think that all the meetings are happening. And those ones that you see being advertised to the public, exactly. Most events are happening as corporates, you know, it's under the, you know, you don't actually see them, and we'll buy that final piece, the expression piece. So, you know, communicating human to like communicating with your overall expression. What does that mean? Paul N. Larsen Yeah, that's, that is the overall expression is kind of your overall brand. It's your overall legacy. It's your overall impact that you make, and in whatever role that you're playing, how do you know what that impact is? How do you know what that legacy is, um, if you're not authoring that it's been authored for you, because back to everything we just said, if you are not deliberate in how you build your relationships, how you build your vision, how you discover your values, how you take steps out of your comfort zone, if you are not doing that deliberately James, then that legacy of who you are that presence of who you are that your overall expression that's been crafted for you. So I always work when I work with leaders, especially, and many leaders have been in the business for for for many years, I'll say, what's your legacy? What's your leadership legacy? And they look at me and they go, I have no idea. I've never been asked that question, or I've never asked it up myself. And I said, well, then that means it's being created for you. Yeah. Could you have a legacy? So why don't you step into that and start to author that legacy author that expression, and you James Taylor really have to push because as we know, having both in the Silicon Valley world as well, that billions of dollars are being spent in terms of distracting you from maybe doing things with your, with your in your longer term benefit, let's first put it that way, things that distract you to keep scrolling through, you know, like clickbait and things. And there's an entire industry that's around there in terms of psychology that's going so you do have to be very cognizant of that and and be quite as you should use it, use that word deliberate, deliberate about you are making certain decisions and and some things you're going to be saying no to. So as we start to kind of finish up his quickfire questions here. We're just talking about tools and apps, actually, are there any tools online resource app you find really useful for yourself as a speaker, Paul N. Larsen you know, the one that it doesn't necessarily pertain to speaking but it pertains to my my mind space, and it's called headspace. Now, you said it, yeah, it, I use that James, you will find me using that everywhere. I I will go into the I will go into a meditation and I'm not you know, I'm not going to be sitting here saying I'm meditating all the time. But I will go into that headspace app in many different avenues. I'm on the bus. I'm on a plane, I'm walking down the street. I'm waiting for a client and I will all of a sudden just go in there and use it. It has created I think it's really important in today's world, create anchors for yourself and to create a groundedness and that's what it does for me. James Taylor I do wonder because I come a name of the gym. A man whose voice is used the founder of that company has used his voice. I think he's British. But then he now lives in San Francisco, I seem to remember. I do wonder if people when people go to his events, if they automatically start sending out as soon as he starts speaking, because he has a certain type of action, I know, very distinctive Paul N. Larsen is a cert and if you think about it, and you're absolutely right, the tone and the pace and it's just like, Ah, yeah, it's just it's Yeah, it's magical for me because I use it, I am very deliberate in how I use it and very disciplined in how I use it as well. James Taylor And what about in your speaker bag, what is in that bag that you carry with you to all of your speaking engagements that you never leave the home or work without, Paul N. Larsen you know, I use a so so it's really great I use um, I like to have a lot of vibrancy in my speaking engagement. So I bring a lot of what I usually always do, and that the toolkit will vary. But when I go and speak, I will go to some kind of arts and crafts store before I go speaking, and I will go in and find something very local. So if I'm speaking in Chicago, or I'm speaking in Los Angeles, or I'm speaking in Singapore, speaking in Seoul, I will go to a local store, find some local colorful arts and crafts, maybe there could be anything, I will bring that into my speech somehow into my into my topic into my presentation, maybe it's an audience interaction, depending on the size of the audience and so forth. And it is it not only does it engage me with the local flavor and the local community, people love something local for themselves they come in they're like wow, wow, look at what this is all about the Malaysian food that we just had, you know, or Wow, look at what he's doing in vanilla. And it's amazing how that comes alive. And it kind of plants you in that community. So that that toolkit piece for me, varies depending on where I'm at and and and the local audience that I'm serving. James Taylor And what about a book if someone wants to buy one book it could be on the speaking the the crafter speaking on the business speak, or maybe didn't even have to be about speaking of maybe could just be some of the broader things that we've been discussing as well. What would that book be you'd recommend? Paul N. Larsen So I have a book that I recommend to everyone that I that I that I work with, in any capacity, and I have to apologize, I forgot the name of the author. And it's terrible. I'm but I'm one of these people. Like, I know the song. And I love the melody, but I don't know who's singing it. But the book is called the obstacle is the way James Taylor it's at Ryan holidays. That is the old Thank you. Paul N. Larsen Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Oh, see, look at you. You're like you're like you're like you're just such an expert. James Taylor It's a wonderful poem. It's a wonderful book, Paul N. Larsen it is a brilliant book, you look at that you look at historical context is of where obstacles have come up and and how the obstacles actually at the ciliated Thruway for you. Because to your point around distractions, we live in an age of distractions. And distractions can be obstacles, big or small in people's lives and people's journeys. And I just thought the book was just so brilliant. And I use it in many, many rounds around coaching and working with leaders working with teams. And then so certainly for myself, James Taylor so a penultimate question here, if we pull, I want you to imagine, you woke up tomorrow morning, and you have to start from scratch. I'm gonna let you choose any city in the world you can wake up in, but you've got all the skills that you've acquired over the years as a coach, as an author as a speaker, but no one knows you, you know, no one, you have to restart. What would you do? How would you restart, Paul N. Larsen so I would restart. So I would wake up probably in the city that I know of, which is San Francisco, no one love, and so forth. But regardless of the community you wake up in. And by the way, I love this exercise, because I think it's something we should do, we should do anyway, we should look to how we reboot ourselves. But I would start off in being much more deliberate, much more smaller scale in the steps I need to take to build my business. When I went the when I the mistakes I made in the past, was trying to do too much too soon to too many people. And I would now take a reboot and say, I'm going to take one step today, one step tomorrow, build one relationship today, one relationship tomorrow, and create that stepping stone in terms of building sort of the business and brand and create more much more of an end vision for myself then then what I've done, I jumped in sort of to the deep end of the pool, and I came out with with lots of water and all over the place and drank the water and breathed the water. And I survived because I came up with the buoyancy, and I came out of the pool with it with a determination. I don't want to do that again. So the reboot for that question is not doing that again, is doing the opposite which is taking the much smaller Steps taking the longer term investments for a much longer term gratification, not the short term gratification that we are so often are are confronted with. James Taylor Well Paul, it's been a pleasure speaking today if people want to connect with you learn more about you your your coaching your speaking and your writing, where's the best place for them to go and do that Paul N. Larsen so they can certainly go to my website which is Paulin, Larsen LR sem comm they are certainly free to connect with me on LinkedIn I love connecting with LinkedIn all I asked on LinkedIn is connect with me just let me know that you that you you know interacted with me through the summit and so forth but love to connect or even shoot me a direct email at Paul at Paul n Larsen comm I'm very very, very approachable. There's there's there's the the expressive introvert of me comes out and I love to maintain those network and and the connection. So I welcome all of that. And this is this has just been a wonderful opportunity James and the work that you're doing is just incredible for the community. So I applaud it and just you know, I'm so honored to be part of it. James Taylor Well Paul, I look forward to getting a chance to meet up in person and I wish you all the best of the speaking until then. Paul N. Larsen Thank you so much James Have a wonderful weekend and and I welcome anyone's connections as well. So thank you all thank you very much. James Taylor Today's episode was sponsored by speakers you the online community for speakers and if you're serious about your speaking career then you can join us because you membership program. I'll speak as you members receive private one on one coaching with me hundreds of hours of training content access to a global community to help them launch and build a profitable business around their speaking message and expertise. So just head over to SpeakersU.com to learn more. #speakersU #speakerslife

Palmer Luckey is the Founder @ Anduril Industries, founded on the premise of radically transforming the defence capabilities of the United States and its allies by fusing artificial intelligence with the latest hardware advancements. To date, Palmer has raised over $385M with Anduril from Founders Fund, a16z, Elad Gil, Spark Capital, Lux Capital, General Catalyst and 8VC to name a few. Prior to changing the world of defence, Palmer founded Oculus VR where he designed the Oculus Rift. Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2.3Bn in 2014. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Palmer made his way into the world of startups, made his way from trailer to selling Oculus for $2.3Bn to changing the defence industry with Anduril today? 2.) How does Palmer evaluate his own relationship to money? How has that changed since his $2.3Bn Oculus exit? How does Palmer assess his relationship to risk? How does Palmer approach the correlations between money, risk and happiness? 3.) What were some of Palmer's biggest takeaways from his time scaling Oculus? How have they informed his mindset with Anduril? What worked? What did not work? How has Palmer changed as a leader? How does Palmer approach personal development? How does he optimise for it? 4.) Palmer scaled Oculus to 1,400 people in 1 year, where do organisations break with scale? Why does Palmer believe, "you never want to play yourself"? Where does he feel his biggest weakness is as a scaling leader? How does Palmer approach hiring at scale yet maintaining culture? 5.) From a defence standpoint, why does Palmer feel the US needs to be more like the Chinese? Why is the DoD so poor at investing in innovation? What does it take to sell into the DoD really effectively? Why have the only 2 successful defence companies been founded by billionaires? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Palmer’s Fave Book: The Three-Body Problem As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Federico Marchetti is the founder of Yoox.com and the CEO of Yoox Net-A-Porter. Wired UK called Federico one of the most influential figures in European tech.  Over the past two decades, Federico Marchetti has brought speed and agility to the luxury industry, reinventing the business of fashion through technology. If an online shopper is buying luxury right now, chances are it’s coming from YOOX NET-A-PORTER. Today, YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP directly employs nearly 5,500 people globally.  It serves more than 4.3 million customers in 180 countries with more than 1 billion visits to its online destinations annually.  In this episode: Gucci, Prada, Dior. Names that conjure up images of the avant garde, of the cutting edge. But change in the luxury industry is slow. Federico Marchetti, founder of the luxury e-commerce leader Yoox, CEO of the now Yoox Net-A-Porter, discusses his journey from startup to its acquisition by the Richemont group in 2015 for $3BN. How did he overcome industry reticence? Federico discusses his company's exponential growth, how he leveraged partnerships, the importance of China and his view of the future. 

Ryan Petersen is the Founder & CEO @ Flexport, the operating system for global trade with over $1.3Bn in funding from the likes of Softbank, Founders Fund, DST, GV and First Round to name a few. Justin Kan is the Founder @ Atrium and Twitch (acq by Amazon for $1Bn). Justin is also a prolific angel with a portfolio including the likes of Scale AI, Digits, Cruise and Triplebyte to name a few. Matteo Franceschetti is the Founder & CEO @ Eight Sleep, the #1 Smart Mattress, designed to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. To date, Matteo has raised over $70M from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, Kevin Hartz and Ryan Petersen to name a few. Steve Schlafman is a Coach and Investor @ High Output. Previously Steve was a Partner @ Primary Ventures in NYC and before that Principal @ RRE. CLICK TO LISTEN ON ITUNES In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) What was your realisation moment for stopping drinking? How did it come about? What was your prior relationship to alcohol like? 2.) For me I always found an excuse to not stop drinking, when you think about your attempts to give up, what excuses did you provide as reasons for continuing to drink? What insecurities and vulnerabilities did drinking hide and mask for you? How did it impact them? 3.) From a literal standpoint, how did you approach giving up the act of drinking? What tools did you find most helpful? What resources do you recommend? How has your life changed since you stopped drinking? Matteo, you have the data from Eight Sleep, what does the data say about how stopping drinking truly impacts your sleep? 4.) People often say that stopping drinking kills your social life, what would you respond to that commonly held belief? What other core misconceptions do you find people hold towards drinking? To those considering giving up drinking, what would you advise them? What do you know now about alcohol that you wish you had known earlier? As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

A Conversation with Brandon Munro, Uranium market commentator and CEO of Bannerman Resources (ASX:BMN)Our weekly romp through the world of uranium with Brandon Munro, reveals that even in a relatively quiet week, there is much to discuss. Two potential large stories.1. AOC says she is open, as is Joe Biden, to looking at nuclear as part of the solution for America's energy. This calms unsettled nerves within utilities as the US elections loom at the end of this year. It gives clues about budgets and eases investment decisions, although we doubt any investment decisions will be made until after the election.  2. Is America trying to build and American Rare Earths Hub? Some big clues this week as Energy Fuels engages Constantine Karayannopoulos and Brock O'Kelley, two rare earth element industry experts who each have decades of experience producing commercially viable rare earth products, to aid in the development and implementation of commercial and technical REE strategies for the new US REE program. Karayannopoulous built and sold MolyCorp for c. $1.3BN, and currently runs Neo, one the world's largest downstream rare earths businesses. Something big is happening here.We also discuss the parallels between uranium and rare earths. The geopolitics and global weaponising of access is becoming exacerbated.  Company page: https://www.bannermanresources.com.au/Make smarter investment decisions, subscribe here: https://www.cruxinvestor.comFor FREE unbiased investment information, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook:https://twitter.com/cruxinvestorhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/crux-investor/https://www.facebook.com/cruxinvestorTake advantage, hear it here first: https://www.youtube.com/CRUXinvestor

Sometimes the company you start looks a lot different from the company you end up with; Azim Premji turned his cooking fat company into one of India’s largest technology companies. With over 70,000 employees and $3Bn in sales, Wipro provides software solutions, research and development, and information technology outsourcing to multinational corporations. Azim is the […]

We are continuing our series on the impacts of COVID-19 on the commercial real estate market. Joining us to discuss retail is Adam Paul - President and CEO of First Capital Realty. First Capital is one of Canada's largest owners, developers and operators of mixed-use real estate. They have 158 properties across Canada and an enterprise value of $9.3Bn. First Capital is a landlord to many of the world's biggest retailers - Walmart, Sobeys, Canadian Tire, Metro putting them in an excellent position to help us understand what's happening in retail. Adam first Capital in 2015. As President and CEO, Adam has overall responsibility for First Capital's strategy, operations and performance. Prior to joining First Capital, Adam was a senior executive at Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust (“CREIT”) (now Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust), where he had direct responsibility for various aspects of CREIT's business. Adam is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, a member of the Young Presidents' Organization and a director of Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac). This podcast was recorded on April 6th, 2020.

Ravi Viswanathan is the Founder and Managing Partner @ NewView Capital, launched in 2018 with their $1.35Bn Fund I, they have already set themselves as leaders in the world of growth funding with 3 massive exits in less than 2 years in the form of Plaid, sold to Visa for $5.3Bn, Acquia, sold to Vista Equity for $1Bn and then Scout, sold to WorkDay for $540M. Prior to founding NewView Ravis spent 14 years at one of the largest venture firms in the business, NEA where he co-led their venture growth equity practice and in 2016, became COO @ Nea. Before the world of venture, Ravi spent 4 years as a VP @ Goldman Sachs and before that was at McKinsey & Co. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Ravi made his way into the world of venture from investment banking and how that led to his founding the monster $1.35Bn Fund I for NewView Capital? 2.) Given the first fund being $1.35Bn, how did Ravi find the fundraising process for NewView? On reflection, what did he and the team do well that they would do again? What did they not do well that they would alter? What advice would Ravi give to first-time fund managers raising today? 3.) Would Ravi agree with Bill Gurley, "the biggest challenge today is the sheer quantum of capital flowing into the industry"? What does Ravi make of the rise of private equity (PE) houses entering the venture landscape? How does it change the exit landscape? 4.) How does Ravi think about the right way for funds to navigate and approach the secondary market? What advice would he give to emerging managers? How does Ravi feel about founder secondaries? What framework does he use to determine whether the amount is reasonable? 5.) How does Ravi think about what it take to truly win the best deals in competition today? If one does not have the budget of a16z, how does one build a venture platform? Where do the majority of investors make mistakes when it comes to VC value add? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Ravi's Fave Book: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE, Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood Ravi’s Most Recent Investment: Plaid As always you can follow Harry, Ravi and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Businesses are always looking for ways to shorten their sales cycles. HelloSign provides secure, effortless eSignatures proven to speed up contract signing by 80%. Most clients go from a multi-week turnaround to a multi-hour one. They’re an industry leader and have been voted #1 for Ease of Use two years in a row on G2 Crowd. Don’t let pen and paper processes slow you down. Click Here to join the millions of users already using HelloSign to close more deals faster!

Interview with Jeremy Wrathall, Founder & CEO of Cornish Lithium.A gentle meander through the world of lithium. It's struggling at the moment, but is it the exciting EV commodity that can satiate our future hunger for green energy?Cornish Lithium is a lithium junior mining company based in Cornwall. No lithium is produced in Europe whatsoever right now, but Wrathall claims we used to be able to “buy it from the supermarket.” This obscurity of supply is something Cornish Lithium is looking to capitalise on.Wrathall is a mining engineer, trained in Cornwall with a big passion for Cornwall. He has a finance background at Deutsche Bank, but it is laden with mining knowledge. In addition, he is a partial geologist.Wrathall identifies the main issues in the lithium market right now: namely, the supply chain and its carbon footprint. In the UK, we used to rely on international shipping; there is a big carbon footprint in shipping supply chains and lithium thousands of miles away. Is it responsible joined up mining? People are beginning to think of geothermal (ultra-green) energy, and domestic lithium supply.However, do people care more about margins than going green? Wrathall points to the CEO/Chairman of Blackrock, the "biggest funding institution in the world," who said in January “We do care about carbon footprint now, because our investors do.” Investors will want to know Cornish Lithium can plug itself in the European battery supply chain, or will there always be companies looking to margin, regardless of green momentum?Wrathall expects Cornish Lithium to demand a premium but claims the team is aware they need to compete on price. Wrathall claims that low carbon technology means they can still compete and be towards the bottom of the cost curve. Companies like BMW have already said we have to source our material ethically; societal pressure appears to be changing.A big flaw in the supply chain has been the UK's disposal practices: shipping 70% of its waste to Turkish landfills. This relocation of waste solves nothing.ESG and Greta Thunberg's impact on international markets last year could mean 2020 is the year of climate action. Investors and producers are carefully considering how they assess supply chains.How are automotive companies engaging with mining companies to check they are mining ethically, and how can they track this? Wrathall claims the EU is putting €3Bn into the EV supply chain, but states it is national governments' responsibility to spearhead green mining and incentivise it.Wrathall states the mining industry is responsible for c.10% of emissions globally. He claims a blizzard of change and innovation is coming into a very conservative industry.The "biggest lithium rock body in the world" is in Cornwall, and it has higher-grade rock than in some of the places in Europe. Wrathall's eventual ambition would be to create a battery powerhouse in Cornwall, but this is incredibly early stage. Is this just wishful thinking? Cornish Lithium has the technology to extract from both hard rock and brine.Wrathall explains that Brexit has crystalised the UK government's economic thinking, claiming they plan green investment akin to the Manhattan Project.Cornwall is a socially deprived county, but Wrathall wants to change that. Geothermal power has allowed Cornish Lithium to recently recover lithium (high concentrate spodumene) from the layer of water that lies beneath Cornwall. However, New Zealand, a lithium extraction country, has been at it for 60-years, but they haven’t utilised this technology at full scale yet, just pilot scale.The lithium market is depressed at the moment because of oversupply from Chinese grade lithium, but this is low-grade, and Cornish Lithium wants to fill the high-grade battery demand gap.Company page: https://www.cornishlithium.com/Make smarter investment decisions, subscribe here: https://www.cruxinvestor.comFor FREE unbiased investment information, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook:https://twitter.com/cruxinvestorhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/crux-investor/https://www.facebook.com/cruxinvestorTake advantage, hear it here first: https://www.youtube.com/CRUXinvestor

Interview with Christian Milau, CEO of Equinox Gold (TSX:EQX).Equinox Gold, listed around 2 years ago with Ross Beaty as the main shareholder, with goals to become a multi-jurisdiction, large-cap gold mining company. It's fair to say they have done it big, ba-ba big. Currently at $1.3Bn and seemingly faultless. So what next?Equinox has a promising portfolio of assets: Mequite Gold Mine, a Californian project producing 125,000-145,000oz gold per annum with an AISC of US$930-$980/oz and a grade of 0.46g/t gold (exclusive of reserves), Aurizona Gold Mine, a Brazilian gold mine producing 75,000-90,000oz per annum with inferred resources of 1.1Moz @ 1.98g/t gold (with an exploration upside) and an AISC of US$950-1025, Castle Mountain Gold Mine, an under-construction gold mine with a PFS and production potential of 200,000oz per annum and a 16-year life-of-mine, and a copper-focussed spin-out operation in the form of Solaris Copper Inc.Equinox has had a quite remarkable rise over the last few years, with its share price hovering around CAD$5 at the start of 2019, now standing at CAD$10.95 today. The market cap is an impressive CA$1.24Bn.We spoke with Milau about a variety of topics. Targets that were set have been well and truly delivered. Mequite and Aurizona are up and running, producing at a reasonable scale with a good AISC. Castle Mountain should be ready to rock by Q3/20. Equinox has kept things simple and it is reaping the rewards. The portfolio is focussed; thus, projects aren't lying around waiting to be put into production like they are for so many mining companies. Equinox's message is simple: make good acquisitions, and get that gold out of the ground! 11% insider ownership is another reassuring fact for investors, alongside a more diversified shareholder base than when we last spoke with Milau.More of the same for 2020? The management team seem confident. The Gold price is in their favour and with the ability to access cash for more acquisitions if they want to. Milau is trying to keep the tempo up and the marketing fervour measured. We can only see this getting better. Company page: https://www.equinoxgold.com/For FREE unbiased investment information, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn:https://twitter.com/cruxinvestorhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/crux-investor/Take advantage, hear it here first: https://www.youtube.com/CRUXinvestor

Co-living is a vertical gaining serious momentum in across the globe. At it's core, it's a move toward smaller units combined with more living area over all / amenities for the tenants. Medici Living Group - the parent company to North America's Quarters - is the largest operator of co-living today, having recently raised $1.5Bn USD to go after the sector in North America and Europe. We were extremely lucky to be joined by two of the smartest guys in the industry. Our guests today are Greg Gould & Don White. Greg is the head of Canada and Strategic Partnerships for North America at Medici. He is an executive leader in charge of growing Medici's North American brand - Quarters. Prior to teaming up with Medici, Greg was a leader at Goldman Sachs for over 15 years. Don White is an Executive Vice President at Colliers International with over 25 years experience. Since 2000, he and his team have completed more than $3Bn in transactions. Don is also the President and Founder of Private Pension Partners - a leader in real estate development and asset management. Read more about Medici, Greg, Don, & P3 via the links below: -https://www.medici-living.com/ -https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregmgould/ -https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-white-cfa-cpa-cga-017006178/ -https://privatepensionpartners.com/ To find more videos and content from CRE Library - visit us at www.crelibrary.ca, or subscribe to our podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Chetan Puttagunta is a General Partner @ NEA, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms in the world with over $3Bn in their latest fund and a portfolio including the likes of Mulesoft, Jet.com, Uber, Houzz and many more incredible companies. As for Chetan, Chetan focuses on enterprise software and has made investments in MuleSoft, MongoDB, Elastic, Heap, just to name a few. Due to his phenomenal track record, Chetan has been named to GrowthCap’s Top 40 under 40 Growth Investors, Forbes 30 under 30 All-Star Alumni List, and Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Venture Capital.  In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How Chetan made his from the world of leveraged buyouts to the world of enterprise VC investing with NEA? Why does Chetan have such conviction with regards to open source companies today? Why does he feel the big question of “Can open source product multi-billion dollar companies” has been proven”? How does Chetan think about the underlying business models of open source when comparing the likes of Red Hat with 85% gross margin to Hortonworks at negative gross margins? What does Chetan believe is a healthy ratio between professional services vs closed premium features? Does Chetan believe this is the end for per seat pricing in SaaS? How does Chetan approach market sizing today when evaluating potential enterprise opportunities? Why does Chetan believe there is a mental trap in the VC requirement for large markets? How can founders present the niche market they are attacking, in an exciting enough way to satiate the investor appetite for large market? Chatan has said before, “if you have conviction and vision, you should not be afraid to raise capital and go big”. Does every founder not have conviction and vision in the early days? How does Chetan determine when truly is the right time to pour fuel on the fire and raise that mega war chest?    60 Second SaaStr? A moment in Chetan’s life that has changed the way he thinks about the world? Fave SaaS reading material? What does Chetan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Chetan Puttagunta

In this episode: David, Jason and Simon are joined for this week's show by news show regulars Liz Lumley and Kadhim Shubber. First up Jason guides the team through recent current account announcements from both Monzo and Starling – are they the hipsters of fintech?, Are they racing each other to release products?, and is there not room enough in the industry for both? They myth-bust the “tech-focus” of BNY Mellon's new CEO; why “tech” is the tag everyone seems to covet – but saying it does not make it so; Kadhim introduces everyone to Shingy (shingy.com) and was the FCA's faulty currency convertor tools deliberate or an honest mistake? As Barclays start giving away BPay bands for free they debate whether wearable alternatives to wallets are really a thing? And if they are, should you pay for them? David also chats with David Geale of the FCA on their latest cohort for the regulatory sandbox. Guests: Elizabeth Lumley FinTech commentator & Author of girl-disrupted.com Kadhim Shubber, Reporter at Financial Times David Geale – Director of Policy, FCA News this week: Finextra – Monzo taking it slowly as first limited-edition current accounts come onstream- Link  Starling Bank YouTube – Starling goes live with Apple Pay – Link Finextra – Paypal partners with Samsung Pay – Link Bloomberg – BNY Mellon appoints tech-focused Charles Scharf as its CEO – Link Finextra – FCA issues warning over misleading currency converter tools – Link Business Insider – Ratesetter has £80m of loans go bad – Link City AM  – Barclays to give away “BPay” bands for free – Link FT – Tech “start-ups” raise $1.3Bn from “ICOs” Link Guardian – End of the ‘rip-off': all charges for paying by card to be banned – Link Chicagotribune –  Man robs bank while 4 children wait outside in SUV – Link The post Episode 115. News: buying jewellery from a bank? appeared first on 11:FS. Special Guests: David Geale, Kadhim Shubber, and Liz Lumley.

In this episode: David, Jason and Simon are joined for this week’s show by news show regulars Liz Lumley and Kadhim Shubber. First up Jason guides the team through recent current account announcements from both Monzo and Starling – are they the hipsters of fintech?, Are they racing each other to release products?, and is there not room enough in the industry for both? They myth-bust the “tech-focus” of BNY Mellon’s new CEO; why “tech” is the tag everyone seems to covet – but saying it does not make it so; Kadhim introduces everyone to Shingy (shingy.com) and was the FCA’s faulty currency convertor tools deliberate or an honest mistake? As Barclays start giving away BPay bands for free they debate whether wearable alternatives to wallets are really a thing? And if they are, should you pay for them? David also chats with David Geale of the FCA on their latest cohort for the regulatory sandbox. Guests: Elizabeth Lumley FinTech commentator & Author of girl-disrupted.com Kadhim Shubber, Reporter at Financial Times David Geale – Director of Policy, FCA News this week: Finextra – Monzo taking it slowly as first limited-edition current accounts come onstream- Link  Starling Bank YouTube – Starling goes live with Apple Pay – Link Finextra – Paypal partners with Samsung Pay – Link Bloomberg – BNY Mellon appoints tech-focused Charles Scharf as its CEO – Link Finextra – FCA issues warning over misleading currency converter tools – Link Business Insider – Ratesetter has £80m of loans go bad – Link City AM  – Barclays to give away “BPay” bands for free – Link FT – Tech “start-ups” raise $1.3Bn from “ICOs” Link Guardian – End of the ‘rip-off’: all charges for paying by card to be banned – Link Chicagotribune –  Man robs bank while 4 children wait outside in SUV – Link The post Episode 115. News: buying jewellery from a bank? appeared first on 11:FS. Special Guests: David Geale, Kadhim Shubber, and Liz Lumley.

In this episode, originally from May 2011, Dave interviewed Matt Harris, the co-founder of Village Ventures. Two companies that Dave and Matt discuss in this interview are BankSimple and On Deck Capital. Village Ventures lead Simple's $2.9MM Series A Round in September 2010. In 2014, BBVA acquired Simple for $117MM. As for OnDeck Capital, Village Ventures participated in the Series A round in January 2006. OnDeck went public in December 2014 with a valuation of about $1.3BN. At the time of this recording, OnDeck had originated $130MM in loans. At IPO, it's origination volume was up to $1.7BN. In 2012, Matt Harris joined Bain Capital Ventures, where he leads the New York office and focuses primarily on financial services investments.