Smart Humans with Slava Rubin

Nicholas Tommarello is the Founder and CEO of Wefunder, a pioneering crowdfunding platform that allows individuals to invest in startups. He co-founded Wefunder in 2012, leveraging provisions from the 2012 JOBS Act to enable unaccredited investors to purchase equity in early-stage companies, thereby democratizing access to investment opportunities that were traditionally available only to wealthy individuals. Tommarello holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College and participated in the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2013.

Mike Silvestrini is a seasoned renewable energy professional with a longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability. He has played a central role in developing over 500 solar projects across the United States, Brazil, and Africa—contributing meaningfully to the global transition to clean energy.Prior to Energea, Mike co-founded and served as CEO of Greenskies Renewable Energy LLC. What began with a desk in a basement and a $25,000 check grew into one of the country’s largest commercial and industrial solar firms before his exit in 2016.As Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Energea, Mike draws on his deep industry experience to expand access to renewable energy investments worldwide. His proven leadership and focus on sustainable infrastructure position him as a key voice in the fight against climate change.Outside of Energea, Mike serves on the board of the Big Life Foundation, which protects 1.6 million acres of wilderness in East Africa. His work supports community-based conservation and initiatives that preserve biodiversity through sustainable practices.

In this conversation, Vincent founder Slava Rubin and Sacra founder Jan-Erik Asplund discuss the rise of Anduril, the defense technology startup that has disrupted traditional defense contracting with innovative products and a unique business model. They explore the evolution of Anduril's offerings, and how the company has positioned itself as a potential sixth prime contractor in the defense sector. The discussion also covers Anduril's revenue growth, competition with established defense primes, and the opportunities and risks it faces in the global market, as well as its IPO prospects.

Bob Elliott is the Co-Founder/CEO of Unlimited Funds, a firm disrupting the investment landscape by empowering everyday investors with sophisticated tools reserved for the world’s financial elite.Unlimited uses machine learning to replicate the returns of 2&20 style high-cost alternative investments like hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity, at a low cost. Under Bob’s leadership, Unlimited has democratized access to sophisticated returns through cost-effective and liquid ETFs like the $HFND, one of the fastest-growing active ETF launches of 2022.A Harvard graduate, his expertise in decoding complex financial systems is transforming the way investors and advisors approach alternative investments, making him an invaluable voice in today's economic discourse. He speaks frequently on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business.

In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin interviews Harold Hofer, co-founder and CEO of Alture Funds.Harold Hofer was a crowdfunding pioneer when he launched Rich Uncles in 2012, featuring the first digitally delivered investment offering available to non-accredited, non-millionaire investors. Through its NYSE listing in 2019 (NYSE: MDV), Rich Uncles grew to thousands of investors and hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate acquired and managed.Harold brings this pioneering knowledge and experience to Alture Funds. Alture Funds offers self-managed investment capital the opportunity to purchase shares in large, existing alternative investment funds that historically limited capital raising to "human" wealth managers. For the first time, these Alts are now available on a digital platform dedicated to connecting digital native, self-managed investors with large, legacy Alts sponsors, starting with $2,500.Harold attended UCLA, where he holds undergraduate, Masters (Economics) and Juris Doctor degrees.

Louisa Klouda is the CEO and Founder of Fenchurch Legal, and is responsible for overseeing all business operations. Louisa founded Fenchurch Legal in 2020 after an interest in the litigation finance market sparked an idea to apply a secured lending model to litigation finance. She discovered a market largely dominated by funders focusing on high-value, complex cases such as class actions, however, there was a lack of support for smaller claims. This insight led to the creation of Fenchurch Legal. Before launching Fenchurch Legal, Louisa operated the broking and dealing desk for a corporate brokerage and finance firm in London. In this role, she gained extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and investment product structuring.

Charles Clinton is the CEO and co-founder of EquityMultiple, an online platform that enables individuals to invest in institutional-grade commercial real estate. Before launching EquityMultiple in 2015, Charles was a real estate attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where he advised major private equity clients such as Blackstone and KKR on transactions exceeding $10 billion, including Blackstone’s acquisitions of the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Motel 6, and Hilton’s restructuring ahead of its IPO. Charles earned his JD and Business Law Certificate from Berkeley Law and holds a BA from Amherst College, where he captained the swimming and water polo teams. He is FINRA Series 7 and 66 certified and resides in New York City with his wife and two daughters.

Alan Feld is the founder and managing partner of Vintage Investment Partners. Prior to founding Vintage, Alan Feld was a General Partner at Israel Seed Partners and at Vertex Ventures. Prior to Vertex, Alan was the Managing Director of Evergreen Capital Markets/Robertson Stephens Israel. Alan received an MBA from York University in Toronto, an L.L.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and a B.A. in Commerce and Finance from the University of Toronto.

Kyle Reidhead is Co-Owner & Head of Research at Milk Road, a leading crypto investing media company, and Founder of Impact3, a crypto-native marketing agency helping top protocols and brands in crypto grow.

Vincent founder Slava Rubin and Sacra co-founder Jan-Erik Asplund did a deep dive into Glean, the multi-billion dollar AI startup helping to companies get the most out of their enterprise data. They looked at Glean’s growth trajectory, the competitive landscape and a possible IPO timeline.