Insights
Billion Dollar Moves Episodes
From the real-world impact of AI and the rise of operator-investors, to the growing influence of women and underestimated founders in the funding landscape. Sarah breaks down what’s happening beyond Silicon Valley, explore how capital and media now move together, and spotlight the billion-dollar ideas driving the next wave of innovation.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
SOLD MY STARTUP FOR $780M: THE GOOD, BAD, UGLY
This week we went deep on the growing pains of a startup, from PR nightmares to co-founder breakups, the challenge of shifting from a scarcity to growth mindset, and so much more with Jack Smith, serial entrepreneur & investor who sold his startup Vungle, to Blackstone for $780M.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
The Rise of SuperApps with Muneeb Maayr
Ride-hailing giant Gojek and marketplace Tokopedia, Indonesia’s two largest startups, said a couple of days ago that they’ve merged their businesses to form GoTo Group, on track for a $35-$40B IPO end year.
This sets more fuel to the fire of SuperApps rising in Southeast Asia: a trend that is actually moving from East to West. But is it all that it's cut out to be?
From the rise of SuperApps to the unique challenges of the two-wheeler opportunity in a country like Pakistan, to the fear of a meaningless life, Muneeb Maayr, Bykea and I cover it all.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
Building Biotech with Brian Conn
The Bay Area landscape is still covered with large tech companies and countless tech startups, but the map is increasingly dotted with biotech startups. Apple is making constant strides in healthcare – so much so that Tim Cook RECENTLY said, “that there will be a day we look back and say Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind has been in healthcare.” And believe it or not, Google’s DeepMind is leading the field in protein engineering.
Today, human kind is experiencing a revolution, a revolution in science that will save and transform our lives. From microbiome manipulation, to genomic sequencing biotechnology promises an unprecedented future
But what does it really take to build a biotech company that will last?
In comes my next guest, Brian Conn, who has served as the CFO of numerous biotech companies over two decades where he has raised over $300M for his companies and completed 20 M&A deals.
He’s seen it all, in labs where stress levels are at an all-time high, where millions are burned before a product is seen in market. Currently, Brian is the CFO of a genomic sequencing startup Quantapore, is co-founder of a synthetic biology company Levadura, AND is an advisor for the VC firm General Inception.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth
Corporate America & The Healthcare Battle of Our Generation
More than ever, the spotlight of the world is focused on the healthcare industry:
Never before have we seen the speed of medical and technology innovation, as well as advanced service delivery.
Yet, while today is a time of growth, it is also a time of growing pains: from rising customer expectations on quality of care to privacy concerns with digitization, to the disparities on access. The kimono is wide open on the healthcare battle of our generation. Alethia is VP of Federal Relations & Head of Advocacy for Walgreens, one of the largest drugstore chains in the U.S., with more than 9,000 stores touching the lives of more than 8 million customers in our stores and online.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups, Venture Capital
THE GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURIAL REVOLUTION WITH CHRIS SCHROEDER
This week, we went deep on the Global Entrepreneurial Revolution shaping our future with renowned American investor & entrepreneur, Christopher Schroeder. From the dominance of big tech, to the digital divide to startups rising in the Middle East - we cover it all.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Startups
ZILINGO’S JOURNEY WITH ANKITI BOSE
At 23, Ankiti co-founded Zilingo in 2015 with the vision of bridging the technology gap within the fashion and lifestyle supply chain to help small merchants and traders go digital. Under her leadership, Zilingo has raised over $300 million, scaled to over 8 countries, with over 10,000 merchants and 7 million active users.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth
HOW TO LEAD DISTRIBUTED TEAMS IN 2021 AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
Culture eats strategy any day—and yet, in this time of a pandemic, where teams are distributed, what does it take to really build a culture that sustains? Slack's Brian Elliott weighs in.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY WITH FIRST FEMALE NFL COACH, DR. JEN WELTER
Southeast Asia's ride hailing giant, Grab is set to go public through the world's largest SPAC merger, valuing the company at close to $40Bn. Fresh off the announcement, in this episode, we talk about the rise of startups in Southeast Asia, with over 650 million internet users, more than America and Europe combined. Southeast Asia is arguably the most exciting region in the world right now to create disruptive tech companies with more dry powder, higher valuations, the rise of unicorns and imminent exits fueled further by large corporates.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Venture Capital
The End of Impact Washing with Karen Wawrzaszek
Over a decade ago, JPMorgan and the Rockefeller Foundation, together with the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), published a report claiming that impact investment was an emerging asset class that would reach between $400 billion and $1 trillion in assets under management by 2020. Many thought this was an ambitious prediction - but fast forward, we now see how those doubts were misplaced with markets hitting $715 billion in assets under management in 2020. Against the backdrop of the reckoning of 2020, our lens on impact dollars has become tremendously important. But is there far too much sensationalization of impact? How do we stay grounded on metrics that really matter? We talk with Karen Wawrzaszek to unpack this.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes
Index: Billion Dollar Moves Episodes
Hosted by award-winning entrepreneur and investor, Sarah Chen-Spellings travels across the globe in search of the 'unexpected leader'— unicorn founders & funders who were like you, underestimated long before they became iconic.