I’m always excited to interview a portfolio company founder on Panic with Friends, so I’m doubly excited to have Nave Avimor, co-founder of DSTNC (Social Leverage Fund IV) on today’s show. The company is at the forefront of fashion and technology, or as I like to call it, ‘Fashology’ – for the modern cyclist. DSTNC (pronounced 'distance' - vowels removed) is a first of its kind global marketplace and content destination, curating the largest selection of high-end brands and performance products from around the world.Nave and the team have done a phenomenal job over the last eight months or so, and with the site launched and a seed round raised, this is the right time to have him on. Not everything is about unicorns, and I finally get to dabble in fashology, something I’ve been talking about since the Oakley days. I’ve been able to invest and really try building a full-on Lifestyle brand without the hassle of the day-to-day. Nave’s traveled the world, knows the sport, and his partner has an eye for culture. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. Guest - Nave Avimor, Co-Founder & CPO at Dstnc howardlindzon.com, dstnc.com Twitter: @howardlindzon, @dstnc, @naveavimor, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/naveavimor#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:39) Welcome Nave (09:24) Meaning of Avimor (09:44) Getting into Cycling (10:14) Moving to China (12:22) Living in Shanghai (13:08) Israel Cycling Academy (14:38) Optimal cycling physique (17:14) Building DSTNC (20:53) Bike shop business model (26:45) Gravel bike v. Road bike (28:42) Disc brakes (30:53) A revolution in cycling is happening (32:37) Discovering the best gear (33:45) Close-calls and accidents (39:25) Beyond clothes - exotic bike parts (41:32) Rise of e-Biking (42:38) Wrapping up (43:53) Closing thoughts (44:36)

In this episode I sit down with my producer Knut Jensen to take a look ahead as we turn the calendar to 2023. Knut’s panicked about his portfolio, and we sift the current landscape to find some reasons to be optimistic, though I’m not even sure I want to look back at 2022 – everything made sense, and nothing made sense. The biggest story happened towards the end; that was crypto and fraud. But my job here at Panic with Friends is to keep talking to really smart people and stay an inch ahead, a week ahead, a month ahead of where the trends are. We have to get back to the fundamentals, pick ourselves up and push forward into the new year. So it’s a good time to turn the page, clean things up, and start fresh. Host - Howard Lindzon, Managing Partner at Social Leverage, and Host of Panic With Friends Podcast Sidekick - Knut Jensen, Producer of Panic With Friends Podcast howardlindzon.com, socialleverage.com Twitter: @howardlindzon, @socialLeverage, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/howardlindzon linkedin.com/in/knutejensen linkedin.com/company/socialleverage #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:15) Weighing in on FTX (02:26) Need for regulation (03:38) What worked (05:58) Bears outnumber Bulls (06:25) Addressing fraud (08:22) What’s the next bull market look like? (09:57) Projecting the next trend (12:12) Where we go in 2023 (15:01) What are the catalysts? (16:06) Board governance matters (18:45) Spotting trends (19:40) Historical context of Big Tech (21:56) Consumer excitement moving into 2023? (23:35) Big Tech overlords (25:20) What excites Howard (27:55) Going after Apple, Google, etc (30:05) Filter failure (34:58) Wrapping up (35:52) Closing thoughts (39:02) 

My subject for today is governance, a pet peeve of mine. The lack of governance this funding cycle hasn’t been a good thing. We’ve got a lot of young people who’ve received capital and don’t know how to structure governance, prepare a board deck, or interact with their advisors and investors. Most of us learned from doing, and this generation will learn too; but when you put a lot of money in people’s hands you need to have governance, something we’re seeing more of with the WeWork breakdown and the FTX fraud.To stem this, we have to create tools and software that makes the process of governance tenable. My guest is Surfboard (Social Leverage Fund IV) founder and CEO Chuhan Wang. Her mission is to help founders, boards, and advisors stay in the loop with a better system for communication, board deck access and retrieval, and compilation – the overall world of corporate governance. Chuhan’s vision is to empower founders for success by responsibly harnessing the power of their boards and investors. With founders emerging from all corners of the world, and remote work being a trend, her modern board and investor experience will spark innovation in the next generation of founders. Guest - Chuhan Wang, Founder and CEO at Surfboard howardlindzon.com, surfboard.team Twitter: @howardlindzon, @therealchuhan, @TeamSurfboard, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/chuhan-wang#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:42) Welcome Chuhan (08:22) What is Surfboard? (09:21) Weighing in on FTX (13:04) Running a Board (14:11) Empowering founders (17:40) Finding Social Leverage (18:31) Working with Social Leverage (19:48) Valuing at seed (22:43) Starting a board early (24:31) Signing up for Surfboard (25:43) The Surfboard team (28:50) A good time for governance (30:02) Brad Feld (34:14) Now is the time to build (36:36) Wrapping up (37:09) An opportunity to start again (36:31) Closing thoughts (40:56) 

We’re here in late 2022 with a complete meltdown in crypto, and I’ve no idea what to make of it. So I wanted to bring Sami back on the show to get a gut check. Post FTX fraud I need to make sense of it all, because I’m still super bullish on this next iteration of the internet – web3, crypto – or whatever we’re calling it. They’re solving real problems for people like me, and I’m trying all these different products around NFTs and communities – but a lot has changed since Sami was here a short time ago. And infrastructure, where W3BCloud is focused, still has to happen if the next set of winners and entrepreneurs are going to build.I have a different set of questions for Sami who’s been in the hardware, machine, infrastructure side of computers for a very long time. It’s good to hear him explain things about this compute/infrastructure side of web3 and what it’s going to take to grow and scale in an era of decentralization and the blockchain. Guest - Sami Issa, CEO & Co-Founder at W3BCloud howardlindzon.com, w3bcloud.com Twitter: @howardlindzon, @W3BCLOUD, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/samiissa#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:40) The current panic (00:51) Important disclaimer (07:26) Welcome Sami (08:25) Understanding centralized exchanges (09:56) Non-custodial wallets (11:29) Post FTX silver lining (13:32) Regulation and transparency (14:26) JP Morgan trademarks a wallet (16:21) Wallets explained (18:56) Warren Buffet’s crypto play (22:56) Infrastructure is needed (24:01) Artificial Intelligence (24:49) Size of the crypto market (28:25) Understanding compute (29:02) It’s time to build (32:16) There is no magic money machine (34:02) Wrapping up (35:07) An opportunity to start again (36:31) Closing thoughts (37:30) 

Normally on Panic I’m talking with investors, venture capitalists, traders, and entrepreneurs, but on today’s episode I’m bringing on professional golfer Anne van Dam. Her manager is a good friend of mine who discovered her back in her teens, and now she’s an LP in Social Leverage. We get into some investment talk with her interest in real estate and cover Colony Cooks, a ghost kitchen and virtual restaurant in Los Angeles founded by her boyfriend.Anne discusses her favorite places to visit, her favorite golf courses, and of course getting Social Leverage on her bag. She’s not superstitious, but with Social Leverage in her corner, I’m predicting victories this year for her on tour. Anne has a good head on her shoulders and knows what she wants to do. I hope you’re as inspired by our conversation as I was. I'm looking forward to a round with her the next time she's in Phoenix. Knut has offered to caddie for me. Guest - Anne van Dam, Pro Golfer at LPGAhowardlindzon.com, annevandam.com, lpga.com, ladieseuropeantour.com, colonycooks.com Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @Annevandam, @LPGA, @letgolf @knutjensen Instagram: @annievdam, @letgolf, @LPGA_tour#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:34) Howard jinxes Phil Mickelson (04:52) Welcome Anne (06:53) How do you pronounce Knut? (07:14) Anne’s favorite city (07:32) Anne’s favorite golf course (08:34) The pedal mafia (09:15) Anne’s favorite US golf course (10:13) Anne’s golf hero (10:56) Dealing with nerves (12:48) Winning her first tournament (15:18) LPGA prize money (16:17) Men’s tour v. Women’s tour (18:18) Working with sponsors (19:14) Getting started in investing (21:56) Colony Cooks ghost kitchen (25:08) Bullish on golf (27:36) The fitness side of golf (29:38) Golf superstitions (35:32) Wrapping up (37:44) Closing thoughts (38:42) 

My fishing buddy, Lewis Johnson, is back for his third round of Panic. As I’ve been saying frequently now, I’m just having friends on the podcast. People who have seen things that interest me, not famous – or infamous – people, for the sake of their fame. While Lewis isn’t particularly famous, he’s a steady hand and understands diversification and how cycles work.We touch on the “Bernie Madoff” moment that is now FTX. Lewis isn’t really active in crypto, but has been watching it play out. Swindles go on all along, and in a bull market no one seems to care. A bear market is the usual catalyst for these frauds. People start wanting their money back. We’ll check back with Lewis in three to six months, because this show is still about how we position ourselves; and he’s got a vision of how the world might look moving forward. Guest - Lewis Johnson, CIO at Capital Wealth Advisors howardlindzon.com, capitalwealthadvisors.com blog.capitalwealthadvisors.com/trends-tail-risksTwitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @TrendsTailRisks, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/lewismjohnson #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:35) Welcome back Lewis (06:31) Cryptos “Madoff” moment (07:04) Book: Manias, Panics and Crashes (07:45) Fundamentals & Valuation (10:10) Michael Lewis & SBF (12:10) Bond returns (15:12) The deglobalization cycle (19:51) Fed raising rates (25:05) Gunslingers & Bean Counters (26:16) ‘Wall Street’ gets a vote (29:15) Current market leadership (29:51) Rate sensitivity (31:22) Tech meltdown (33:26) A capital cycles framework (34:51) Where to look for the next cycle (37:05) The ‘capital starvation’ cycle (38:30) Wrapping up (39:42) Closing thoughts (43:35) 

I’ve been dying to get Jan on the podcast, and he’s finally here. After my brief podcast break, I've decided to have a lot of my friends on – people I like talking to about markets. Jan is one of those people. He’s super smart and well educated. I’m in the lucky position where I don’t have to be in the market, but because I’m fascinated by markets, started Stocktwits, love talking about them, and want to continue banging out some alpha, I invited Jan on the podcast. We have a great discussion about debt. We talk about money flows, and while Jan wasn’t the earliest, but early enough with directionally putting his firm on a path towards crypto, he has a lot of insights there as well. People need to be thinking about the market in just a little different way than what worked in the past. You’ll learn a lot from our conversation. I know I did. Guest - Jan van Eck, CEO at VanEck Securities Corporation howardlindzon.com, VanEck.com Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @JanvanEck3, @VanEck_US, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/janfvaneck#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:39) Welcome Jan (04:02) Growing a mature business (04:52) History is a teacher (07:73) Becoming a ‘Macro Structuralist’ (12:58) Lessons from the 1970s (14:49) The right way to view inflation (15:17) Bonds outperform stocks (16:54) Will the Fed pivot? (19:12) The ETF business (24:49) Crypto-related ETNs (27:21) China growth & demographics (28:40) Getting smarter on Brazil (29:04) Web3 (30:18) Thoughts on Wealthtech (34:08) What if 60/40 is wrong? (35:10) Jan argues Howard’s book (39:23) People care about performance (39:42)  Why Jan invested with Howard (40:46) Diseconomies of scale (41:45) The future of ETFs (43:33) Cherry-picking in public markets (46:11) Jan’s favorite podcasts (47:44) Wrapping up (50:16) Closing thoughts (51:37) 

The GOAT himself, Jim O’Shaughnessy is back for a record fourth appearance on Panic with Friends! And this time he’s slightly panicked by not being panicked. I convinced him to put on some slippers and start showing up for work.The last time he was on, we talked about the real panic; I’d come back from vacation fired out of a cannon – only wanting to talk to my close friends or pimp some of our companies. But today I’ve got a lot to talk to Jim about. He was guest number one on the show, and he was on just a few weeks ago – since then the Fed’s hiked another 75 basis points, Facebook’s imploded, and we have a new owner at Twitter. So sure, it makes sense if Jim might be a little panicked about not being panicked.Once again, Jim is the calm voice of reason helping me navigate the turbulent times we’ve found ourselves in. I hope you learn as much from our conversation as I did. Guest - Jim O’Shaughnessy, Founder, Chairman & Co-Chief Investment Officer, OSAM LLC howardlindzon.com, osam.com, infiniteloopspodcast.com Twitter: @howardlindzon , @jposhaughnessy, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/james-o-shaughnessy-b072bb#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:41) Welcome Jim (05:29) Strategy & Tactics (07:46) Decision time (10:30) Elon Musk (12:58) Fixing Twitter (13:39) Dealing with trolls (17:26) The real reason Elon bought Twitter (23:06) Excited about Artificial Intelligence (27:10) AI ethics (30:02) AI in medical research (31:45) AI legal use case (33:15) An Open AI is critical (36:05) First $1B single creator LLC (36:34) Old Models are collapsing (37:25) A “Thiel-style” scholarship (39:09) A revolution in Education (45:12) A real meritocracy (45:56) Human nature doesn’t change (48:19) The next Robinhood could be Robinhood (49:46) Wrapping up (53:05) Closing thoughts (56:58) 

I’m excited to be doing this first episode in a series of shows over the next few months on blockchain, crypto, web3 – whatever you want to call it. As long-time listeners know, I’m a drafter behind smart people on web3. I’m learning as I go, yet being skeptical, and probing through it. I have my angle of attack and know how I want to spend the next few years working on blockchain, infrastructure, web3, NFTs, and community. And while I haven’t talked often enough about it, in full disclosure, Social Leverage Acquisition Corp ($SLAC), the company I’m CEO of, has announced a proposed merger with W3BCLOUD. In addition, Social Leverage (Fund IV) (where I’m a GP) is a shareholder and member of the sponsor group – but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it. So who better to have on to make sense of all this? Guests:Sami Issa, CEO & Co-Founder at W3BCloudMaggie Love, Director - Ecosystem & Partnerships & Co-Founder at W3BCloud, Founder at SheFihowardlindzon.com, w3bcloud.com, shefi.org Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @W3BCLOUD, @She_Fi, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/samiissalinkedin.com/in/maggielove07#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:39) Welcome Maggie and Sami (06:44) Understanding ‘compute’ (06:58) Decentralization & ‘permissionless’ (1016) Crypto & Web3 (12:47) In the back yards of Giants (17:20) Composability (21:27) Not a ‘Winner take all’ world (24:04) Origin story (24:20) Dealing with bear markets (31:48) The adoption cycle (35:20) Infrastructure is the way (38:10) Buffett’s crypto play (39:45) Next internet revolution (41:54) Moving through the cycles (44:05) What makes the register ring? (50:19) Optimizing the hardware infrastructure (52:25) What is ‘trustless’? (52:54) ‘Proof of Stake’ (56:51) A new internet paradigm (59:50) An internet of value (1:00:52) The ‘wallet’ is key (1:01:28) Wrapping up (1:03:34) Closing thoughts (1:09:12) 

My good friend Ben Hunt is here for the fourth time on Panic with Friends. He’s my go-to macro guy, and one of the smartest people to talk about the market with. And if I were going to do a show with any two people, like the All In podcast, it’d be Ben and Jim O’Shaughnessy for sure. Ben has been dead on with so many topics, and we’ve got a ton of topics to talk about in this episode. I wanted to talk about the FED, inflation, and what would turn him bullish. I wanted to get some pointers on the global macro and the SPAC market, to include thoughts on Fat Nixon. I wanted to talk about Robinhood and Citadel, and I want him to chime in on Apple having a monopoly.I also wanted to get Ben’s thoughts about monetary policy as it relates to the UK pension debacle. I think you're going to get a lot out of our conversation. Enjoy! Guest - Ben Hunt, Co-Founder and Partner at Second Foundation Partners, Author and Co-Founder at Epsilon Theory howardlindzon.com, epsilontheory.com Twitter: @howardlindzon, @epsilontheory, @knutjensen linkedin.com/in/bhunt #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance Show Notes: Introduction (00:40) Welcome Ben (06:40) The best thing about getting older (10:17) Turning a layup into a loss (12:40) Lessons from Goodfellas (14:28) Who’s in the PIPE? (18:49) Finance raccoons (20:11) UK pension crisis (22:53) Interest rates repriced globally (23:33) Pension funds can’t make margin calls (29:59) FED creates liquidity crises (31:43) Overexposed to 15 years of low rates (34:35) What the blockchain brings (35:16) Loosening the yoke of Amazon, Apple, Google (35:44) Pension fund return projections (36:55) Ferocious bull rally? (40:54) Will the FED pivot? (43:58) Inflation wasn’t transitory (46:11) Taking real world risks (50:36) Taking on the overlords (57:18) Wrapping up (1:02:12) Closing thoughts (1:05:58)