Village Global Podcast

This special live episode was recorded at the Atrium offices in San Francisco on June 20 2018. Village Global co-founder Erik Torenberg hosted a fireside chat with Daniel Kan, co-founder and COO of Cruise Automation and Qasar Younis, former COO of YCombinator.They discussed all things fundraising, providing an inside look into the world of VC funding and exposing some of the subtler points of fundraising for seed and Series A rounds. They discuss topics like dealing with VCs, refining your pitch and the importance of metrics in a Series A round. They also talked about prepping for meetings with VCs, what motivates VCs, how to efficiently backchannel via your network and transitioning from a seed round to a Series A round.They finished with an enlightening Q&A session, taking questions from the live audience at Atrium.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/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Simon de la Rouviere (@simondlr), crypto developer and thought leader, and Trent McConaghy (@trentmc0), founder of Ocean Protocol, join Erik for an enlightening discussion of crypto.They explain the vast societal transformation that will be brought by blockchain, sometimes in ways that are hard to imagine today. They tell us why we are just at the beginning of a new revolution and how it compares to the rise of the web in the 90s.They promise that “things are going to get weird.” For example, the future your kids inhabit might be one where they earn money as “meme traders” and where cars are not only self-driving but self-owning as well. They also explain why in the future “if it’s not on the blockchain, it didn’t happen” and why it might become very difficult for us to discern what reality in fact actually is.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/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Robin Hanson, associate professor of economics at George Mason University, explains how prediction markets work and their wide variety of applications. They discuss the barriers to widespread adoption, the potential pitfalls, and the benefits of decision-making based on prediction markets. The chapter descriptions cover topics such as utilizing prediction markets for decision making, prediction markets in healthcare and politics, popularizing prediction markets and their impact on political discussions, addressing sabotage in forecasting institutions, and the challenges of implementing radical honesty.

Joining Erik for this interview are Joey Krug (@joeykrug) of Augur and Tony Sheng (@tonysheng) of Decentraland. Erik and Tony interview Joey about the process of building Augur, his new startup that launched on July 9 2018. Joey explains what he envisions for Augur, why it’s “the future of forecasting” and how the process of building it has unfolded over the past two years. He talks about the wide array of possible uses for prediction markets and why he thinks markets in general are the biggest opportunity in crypto. Joey also explains some common misconceptions about crypto and why he thinks we are not yet in a bubble.He explains how open source blockchain technology is like NASA giving out the code to control the space shuttle and allowing anyone to write commands for it, and why security and privacy are so important in cryptocurrency. They also have a round of underrated vs. overhyped.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/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

This is a special live episode that was recorded at Village HQ in San Francisco on June 14 2018. The event was put on in partnership with Xoogler, a network of former Googlers who have come together to help each other with their startup ambitions.Village Global co-founder Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) chatted with Jo Varshney (@jo_getter), founder and CEO of VeriSIM Life and Kiran Bellubbi (@smalldozes), founder of Keyo, about their experience with the Village Network Catalyst program.Jo and Kiran explain what it was like to be a founder in the Network Catalyst program, including how the team at Village helped them with their business model, leveraged Village's unique structure as a network to their advantage and guided them through the fundraising process.

Joining Erik on this episode are Maia Bittner (@maiab), co-founder of Pinch, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), FinTech partner at 500 Startups. They go over the variety of sectors being disrupted by FinTech companies these days, including insurance, credit reporting, personal financial management, capital markets, financial planning, international finance and even banking in the developing world.Erik asks what kinds of opportunities Sheel and Maia see for founders and entrepreneurs as well as the pitfalls faced by different types of companies in the space. Sheel explains how he subdivides his fund and explains the difference between an “enabler” and a “disruptor.”They talk about why FinTech startups often have an advantage in distribution as opposed to product, contrasting with the competitive advantage a startup typically has. Of course, they also cover crypto and the opportunities in FinTech that blockchain and tokenization provide — as well as where the crypto hype might be overblown.

Erik is joined by Nicole Quinn (@Nik_Quinn), Investing Partner at Lightspeed and Lee Edwards (@terronk), former CTO of Teespring and active angel investor. They explain why they’re bullish on consumer packaged goods startups and which industries they see startups disrupting in the future. They also discuss why they think there will be so much growth in the space, especially in e-commerce.They debate the relative importance of having a technically sophisticated founder in a CPG startup and whether a new CPG startup needs to have a strong brand from Day 1. They also talk about the new forms of marketing that CPG startups are taking advantage of.Erik asks what kind of advice they would give to new CPG founders and what kinds of pitfalls new founders need to avoid.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favourite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Erik is joined by Eric Klein, partner at Lemnos VC, and Sankarshan Murthy (@sancartion), CEO and co-founder of Bumblebee Homes. They talk about trends in urbanization, housing and storage in America and why changing attitudes towards consumption present a huge opportunity for investors and founders alike.Sankarshan explains how what his team is working on at Bumblebee Homes will change how and where people choose to live. Eric talks about why he invested in Bumblebee, the other companies he’s invested in so far, and other investment opportunities he's looking for.They explain why now is a good time to start a hardware startup and how changes in the market have enabled anyone to build a prototype in their garage with off-the-shelf components and free software publicly available on GitHub. 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/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Tammy Sun (@tammysun), CEO and co-founder of Carrot Fertility and Afton Vechery (@aaffttoonn), CEO and co-founder of Modern Fertility talk with Erik about this rapidly emerging space.They explain how they got started in the fertility space, give us a rundown of the corporate landscape as it stands at the moment and explain why the market is changing so quickly. They also give us some insight into why it's difficult to build a business in this space and what kinds of opportunities they would be looking for if they were investors or prospective founders.Erik also asks what the future might hold for their companies, how they aim to change how women think about their health, and what kinds of implications a new perspective on fertility might have for society in general.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/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Kendrick Nguyen (@kendrickesq), CEO of Republic and Andy Bromberg (@andy_bromberg), CEO and co-founder of CoinList join Erik to talk about the changing landscape of investing in crypto.They explain how their companies will allow more people to invest in cryptocurrencies, will change how startups are funded, and will impact the broader securities markets. They discuss some of the challenges of securities regulation and how conventional investing will change with the rise of cryptocurrencies.They also make some bold predictions about how the form of cryptocurrencies will change in the future and how individuals, companies, and governments might be involved.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favourite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.