Insights
Personal Growth
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, Personal Growth, Startups, Venture Capital
Investing with Penny Pritzker and Building a Robust Venture & Growth Practice with Momei Qu, MD, PSP Partners
“We’ve definitely had conversations in the past where within 10 minutes; the founder goes ‘we’re oversubscribed; are you in or are you out?’
For those we’ve said, we’re out”
The pressure cooker looks different in venture & growth these days; far from the highs of when the cost of capital was zero!
Momei Qu was on #BillionDollarMoves to discuss:
- The fundamentals of B2B SAAS,
what’s changing with market dynamics
- If we’re over our skis with AI
- What it takes to build a robust venture & growth equity practice PSP Partners
- Learning from and investing with a trailblazer, Penny Pritzker
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth, Startups, Venture Capital
Scaling to $2 billion, Backed By Oprah and Finally Getting to His Why
Nearly 25% of fruits and vegetables are lost globally, and a shocker to some North America is among the global regions with the highest level of food waste. For the company Apeel — mitigating food waste is a multi trillion dollar market opportunity they’re working on, made even more critical by the pandemic.
To keep fruits lasting longer, Apeel has engineered an edible coating product made from plant materials that can make fruit last two to three times as long and is today is commercially available for avocados, organic apples and citrus fruits (mandarins, lemons, limes, finger limes).
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth, Startups, Venture Capital
Unleashing AI & The Future of XR with Martina Welkhoff
Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. And with it, a whole conversation surrounding AI, it’s opportunities and yes perils. Well, to go deeper in this, I’m excited to speak with someone who has been working in this space of AI, VR and XR, immersive and extended reality long before it was the hype it is today. Martina Welkhoff, Managing Partner of WXR fund, an early stage fund that invests in two of the greatest opportunities of our time: the next wave of computing + female entrepreneurs; with companies like Obsess AI, BODs and Embodied labs in her portfolio.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth
Phumzile Van Damme: Battling Disinformation while Young, Black & Female
Phumzile Van Damme is a former Member of Parliament of South Africa, winning multiple awards for her work counter-electoral disinformation, digital rights and platform accountability focusing on Africa.
Phumzile’s first foray in the fight against disinformation centered on the rise and fall of the controversial global PR firm Bell Pottinger, who ran a race based campaign to ignite the differences between the people of South Africa, digging into its painful history of apartheid.
She presented the case on behalf of South Africa, and 2 weeks later, they shut shop. basically toppling one of the most powerful PR firms in the world.
What does it take to be a young Black Woman in politics, to build influence and lead with your principles still intact? Her Billion Dollar Moves is one I needed to deconstruct, that I thought all of us leaders could learn from. You don't want to miss it.
- Personal Growth, Venture Capital
Q1 2023: You’re Holding Yourself Back and Don’t Even Know It, SVB Collapse and Venture Markets
What a wild quarter it has been!
Between the Silicon Valley Bank collapse (and now First Republic Bank on the edge , with the stock now down 95% for the year to date!), ChatGPT taking over and the further fragmentation of our world with US-China tensions increasing, it's been a lot.
Yet, I've been encouraged by a recent read about Jeff Bezos' approach that I'm implementing to balance out the constant that is change:
"FOCUS ON WHAT DOESN'T CHANGE"
Jeff Bezos, known for his long-term value focus once said, "I very frequently get asked about what's going to change in the next ten years, and almost never - what's not going to change".
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth, Startups, Venture Capital
Leveraging Community to Invest in the Future with Jenny Fielding, Everywhere Ventures
Founder turned Funder, from Head of Digital Ventures of the BBC to Managing Director of Techstars, to now Managing Partner of Everywhere Ventures with 250 portfolio companies and counting, Jenny Fielding is the ultimate community builder and investor. Together with Scott Hartley, Jenny is today pursuing a global strategy, as U.S. venture capitalists have taken a step back from deals abroad; launching a new $25M fund, to be the first-check in for startups building in the future of money, health and work.
What does investing as a community mean, what do we think about the upset we’re hearing about Y Combinator’s new terms, how do you manage 500 Limited Partner investors in your fund and what is Jenny’s deepest insecurity? We cover it all and more.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth, Venture Capital
Are You a Business Leader in Denial? Gray Rhino with Michele Wucker
Silicon Valley Bank; what was said to be the epicenter of Silicon Valley tech and small businesses collapsed on March 10th after a run on the deposits doomed the banks plans to raise fresh capital.
At first, there was major concern that this crash will take the VC and startup ecosystem with it, but the gov swooped in and provided a backstop, and scraps of SVB was purchased by First Citizens Bank.
Catastrophe averted? Not quite.
Today’s episode is by no means a full breakdown of what happened, but answers this one question:
“Was this truly a Black Swan event as Nassim Taleb explains it or really, a Gray Rhino, as Best-Selling Author, my friend Michele Wucker writes?
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth, Venture Capital
Inside a Billionaire’s Mind: Nirvana Chaudhary
The eldest Asian son in a family empire, Nirvana was early to make his mark, founding his first independent company at the age of 19; and has continued to grow the businesses from strength to strength; being featured on Forbes to Tatler’s most influential.
But what does it really mean to lead as the face of the next generation? How messy does family business get? And with friends like Bill Gates to Ariana Huffington, how has that informed what next for him? We cover it all in this episode.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth, Startups, Venture Capital
From Lab to Table: The Startup Founder Revolutionizing the Seafood Industry | Sandhya Sriram, Shiok Meats
What does it take to sell and execute on what feels like an impossible vision?
This, is the task of a stem-cell scientist turned founder who is tapping into the multi-billion opportunity to create lab-grown crustacean meat.
Under Dr. Sandhya Sriram's leadership, Shiok Meats today is the world’s first cultivated shellfish meat company, and Southeast Asia’s first cultivated seafood and meat company. The startup’s mission is to bring delicious, sustainable, and healthy seafood to your table, using the cellular agriculture technology to grow meat from stem cells instead of slaughtering animals.Since its inception in 2018, they have grown from 2 to over 50 employees today, made a strategic acquisition themselves, raised over USD 30 Million dollars from big names from Y Combinator to Korean Conglomerate CJ’s Food Arm.
- Billion Dollar Moves Episodes, Personal Growth, Startups
Diverse Hires ≠ Diverse Goals
Your Chief Diversity Officer is likely leaving; or they've already left.
The CDO tenure at under 2 yrs remains one of the shortest-among all exec roles.
Here's why brands are approaching diversity all wrong!
#diversity