Village Global Podcast

Nick Reber of Oscar Health and Kareem Zaki (@KareemZaki_) of Thrive Capital join Erik in this fascinating episode exploring the ins and outs of the health insurance industry. They talk about the misaligned incentives in healthcare and why it maybe shouldn’t be the case that “most people trust their doctor and hate their insurance company.” Nick and Kareem break down why it’s difficult for new entrants to get a foothold in the market and talk about the barriers to competition created by legislation that dates back to World War II. They discuss why there is such a difference between the healthcare plans that people get through their employers versus the ones people opt for when they are selecting a plan on their own. They predict a transition ahead in the health insurance industry that is analogous to the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans.They also talk about why insurance "is one of the worst ways to pay for anything" and their requests for startups in the space.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Myles Snider (@myles_snider), CEO of Aurora EOS and advisor to Multicoin Capital, joins Erik and co-host Tony Sheng to discuss his new role as head of a block producer for EOS.Co-host Tony Sheng (@tonysheng) leads product at Decentraland. He also publishes analyses on the business and strategy of crypto at www.tonysheng.com and is one of Village’s Network Leaders.Myles explains how he ended up in that position after working at Multicoin Capital. He gives us an overview of EOS and talks about how it compares and contrasts to Ethereum. He also gives a history of the protocol. Myles explains what it means to be “decentralized enough” and why he doesn’t think of EOS as either a cryptocurrency or sound money. They talk about the role of block producers and how the governance structure of EOS is set up, including how financial incentives might lead more people to become involved in governance. Myles explains why he decided to become a block producer as opposed to a number of other things he might have done within the ecosystem. He also talks about why he sees himself as a “usability maximalist.” Why Decentralization Matters by Myles Snider: https://medium.com/multicoin-capital/why-decentralization-matters-a-response-6b4b9a31367fThanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

It's double the Sriram Krishnan for the price of one! Sriram Krishnan (@sriramk) of Twitter and Sriram Krishnan (@sriramkri) of HeadSpin join Erik to talk about dating apps, streaming music, the online advertising business, as well as the hilarious stories about people mixing up the two of them. They start off by recounting some of the times their identical names have gotten one or the other in trouble for something the other Sriram Krishnan did, as well as the hilarious story of them both showing up to the same meeting where the host only expected one.The crew talks about Tinder and whether someone else might come along to dethrone the app that's created a whole new way to date. They also talk about the digitization of everything and what else in the relationships space might end up online as well.They move on to Spotify and streaming music in general, breaking down why Spotify emerged from the other side of the world to take on and beat (for now) huge companies like Apple and Amazon, including all of the music labels.Next, they talk about India and the unique dynamics inside the country for entrepreneurs and consumers. In many ways consumer tech is more advanced in India than in the USA and entrepreneurs are often looking up to the Chinese companies and founders rather than American ones.They discuss advertising online with Sriram giving a crash course on how advertising online has evolved from the beginning to now. They also discuss how Facebook was able to lock down the mobile ad market and the path forward for Snap when it comes to ads.At the end there is some bonus discussion of Lebron and some other basketball-related predictions.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

In this episode, Erik is joined by two very smart minds in the health space. He talks to Rachel Craig (@RPCraig), founder and CEO of MotionHall, which a Village Global portfolio company that is building a global platform for biopharma dealmaking, and Ed Saltzman, President and founder of Defined Health, which is a business development strategy consultancy in the life sciences space. Erik asks why now is such an exciting time to be involved in the life sciences field and how it has evolved over time to this point. Rachel and Ed explain to us why they’re excited and why they also have concerns and describe where they would be investing if they were running a venture capital fund.They talk about the continuing crossover of life sciences and technology tools, especially in software, and how the two worlds (one almost entirely regulated, the other entirely un-regulated) can better understand each other. They also talk about what their “requests for products” are and give their advice for founders in the space, including this nugget from Rachel — “run towards hard things and love complexity.”Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik and his co-host Tony Sheng are joined by two special guests for this episode. Lily Liu (@calilyliu) is co-founder of Earn.com which was sold to Coinbase. Jillian Carlson (@_jillruth) is a consultant to projects both big and small in the space. Co-host Tony Sheng (@tonysheng) leads product at Decentraland. He also publishes analyses on the business and strategy of crypto at tonysheng.com and is one of Village’s Network Leaders.Erik starts by asking what each of Lily and Jillian are thinking about these days and what's been top of mind for the last while for them. Lily's been thinking about how the blockchain can be used internationally and Jillian has been thinking about how to make blockchain and crypto actually useful to end users.They have a discussion of Venezuela and its effort to create a state-sponsored cryptocurrency. They discuss the idea of getting blockchain to scale by adding blockchain tech to existing projects that already have scale instead of creating something entirely new.They have an enlightening discussion about business model innovation compared to protocol innovation. They say that much of the protocol innovation will happen in the US and the business model innovation is likely to happen in Asia. There is discussion of the risks of creating projects on top of Ethereum as well as of the risks of creating your own coin and holding your funds in that coin.They also talk about why the sharing economy is well-positioned to have blockchain integrated into it and Lily explains why she thinks that despite the correction in prices we're still not in a bear market yet. Finally, they discuss personal ICOs and the rise of crypto hedge funds.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Mahmoud "Rusty" Abdelkader (@mahmoudimus), CEO of Very Good Security and Ross Fubini (@fubini), partner at Village Global, join Erik on this episode to talk security on the web and Mahmoud's company Very Good Security.Mahmoud explains what he and his team is trying to do at Very Good Security and how they hope to transform the way web apps are secured.Ross has known Mahmoud for a while now and explains why he decided to invest in Mahmoud and his company. They run through the unique aspects of the business that Mahmoud describes as “an infrastructure business disguised as SaaS.” The three also talk about the opportunities in the space and candidly discuss the challenges that VGS and Mahmoud as CEO see ahead of them.For example, Mahmoud asks “how do you hire someone to do a job you don’t know how to do yourself?” They discuss going into the trenches to do the job yourself first so you can understand it. Mahmoud also gets into some of the engineering behind VGS and why he had to give up his motorcycle.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Three exciting guests join Erik to reveal what having been in the healthcare ecosystem has taught them that the average tech investor doesn't know:- Liz Rockett (@liz_rockett), investor at Kaiser Permanente Ventures.- Ryan Panchadsaram (@rypan), investor at Kleiner Perkins and former US deputy CTO.- Jared Seehafer (@seehafer), co-founder of Enzyme and Village Network LeaderErik starts by asking each of them to describe their view on the healthcare industry from their unique individual backgrounds as an investor, a former White House staffer, and an entrepreneur.They play a game of overrated vs. underrated where they name a technology, sub-sector (or even a piece of legislation!) and discuss whether it's over- or underrated. The three guests explain why in healthcare "if you build it, they may not come" and why brilliant technology that solves a clinical problem may still fail. They talk about how healthcare is "multivariate complex interactions of people" and why upstarts need to keep in mind how their technology fits into a current workflow, whether it will be used, and who's going to reimburse for it.They also talk about their "requests for products" that they would like to see built in the space and why "the people who have done the best [in healthcare] have found a way to steep themselves in it before they build too much." They tell prospective founders that they need to build a team that has seen every side of the problem and come to the space with humility and an open, "beginner's mind."Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

The guests on today’s episode are Spencer Noon (@spencernoon), an investor at Doggie Tail Crypto Capital and Cyrus Younessi (@cyounessi1), Director of Research and Trading at Scalar Capital.Co-hosting today’s episode is Tony Sheng (@tonysheng) who leads product at Decentraland. He also publishes analyses on the business and strategy of crypto at tonysheng.com and is one of Village’s Network Leaders.Spencer and Cyrus start out by laying out the theses underlying their bullishness on Ethereum. They give some context on Ethereum through a historical lens and discuss the properties that lend it to scaling well. They also debunk some of the common misconceptions about Ethereum.The four talk about where they would like to see development focused within the Ethereum ecosystem, what obstacles Ethereum faces, and what an Ethereum-killer might look like.They also discuss smart contracts and where Spencer and Cyrus disagree with the fat money crowd on the relative merits of Ethereum vs. Bitcoin as a store of value or as working capital. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik and co-host for this episode Ash Fontana (@ashfontana) of Zetta Venture Partners interview Ali Hamed (@AliBHamed), investor at CoVenture.Ali gives us a primer on the online lending space and compares and contrasts it to offline lending. He explains why payday lenders with astronomical APRs actually have small margins. He also talks about how government can improve the regulatory environment to allow for more disruption of traditional lending and help new companies get a foothold.They talk about crypto and whether people will be making loans against Bitcoin anytime soon as well as the idea of personal ICOs and why Ali thinks they are a bad idea.The trio finish with a rapid-fire round where Erik names a venture firm and Ali talks about what he thinks that company should do in the future. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Joining Erik for this episode are Robert Mittendorff (@doctorrem), partner at Norwest Venture Partners, and Ambar Bhattacharyya (@AmbarBh), managing director at Maverick Ventures.In a continuation of the Requests for Startups series, Erik asks Robert and Ambar what they would like to see built in the digital health space.They discuss which spaces are underdeveloped and are ripe for opportunities versus which spaces don't have room for new entrants. The unique nature of the regulatory environment in health can be a roadblock to new firms so they discuss topics around that and how it impacts startups in the space. They talk about why AI is actually under-hyped in the health space why they say it's "first half of the first inning" when it comes to digital therapeutics.The two also discuss former podcast guest Malay Ghandi's article about whether it's better to work within the system or outside of it when building a company in healthcare and explain why "you want to act like a wolf but look like a sheep."Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.