

Smart Humans with Slava Rubin
Vincent
Smart Humans explores the world of alternative investments. From Venture to Collectibles, NFTs to Real Estate, Art to Debt and beyond - we discuss a new world of investment opportunities and the catalysts that impact their demand. Join our host Slava Rubin as he talks with entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders across the diverse ecosystem.
Any data, text, or other content on this page is provided as general market information and not as investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital.
Any data, text, or other content on this page is provided as general market information and not as investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 5, 2025 • 39min
Smart Humans: Multicoin Capital founder Kyle Samani on the world of crypto, the significance of the Genius Act and the future of DeFi.

Oct 27, 2025 • 41min
Smart Humans: Heron Finance CEO and Founder Mike Sall on the world of private credit investing
Mike Sall is the founder and CEO of Heron Finance, an SEC-registered investment advisor, making investing in the world's leading private market funds more accessible. Earlier in his career, Mike led product analytics at Coinbase, served as Head of Data Science at Medium, and worked in analytics and product roles at Adobe and Deloitte. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Oct 21, 2025 • 56min
Smart Humans: VC Investor Tim Draper on his early investments into iconic companies and the role of Bitcoin in the financial system
Tim Draper founded Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. Funded Coinbase, Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC and 15 other unicorns from early/first rounds.He is a supporter and global thought leader for entrepreneurs everywhere, and is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin and decentralization, having won the Bitcoin US Marshall’s auction in 2014, invested in over 50 crypto companies, and led investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others.He is regularly featured on all major networks as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets and Bitcoin, and has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur of the World,” and is listed as one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by CryptoWeekly, #1 most networked VC by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, member of the Global Guru 30 Startup Gurus in the world, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum.

Oct 14, 2025 • 55min
Smart Humans: Pre-IPO briefing on Elon Musk's companies with Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund and Healey Pre-IPO's Christine Healey
Recorded 6/12/25Slava Rubin, Jan-Erik Asplund and Christine Healey explore the investment landscape surrounding Elon Musk's companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and xAI. The discussion also covers the risks associated with investing in Musk's ventures, and the unique characteristics of the Musk ecosystem.

Oct 8, 2025 • 1h 3min
Smart Humans: Grayscale's Zach Pandl and Fundstrat's Sean Farrell on the future of digital assets beyond Bitcoin
Vincent’s Slava Rubin, Grayscale’s Zach Pandl, and Fundstrat’s Sean Farrell discussed the future of digital assets beyond Bitcoin, looking at the rise of digital asset treasuries, the implications of tokenization, and the growing importance of stablecoins in the financial ecosystem. The experts also provide insights into how to access crypto investments, the challenges of pricing and valuation, and make predictions for the future of the crypto market.

Oct 1, 2025 • 55min
Smart Humans: Siren Biotechnology's CEO Nicole Paulk on revolutionizing cancer treatment and the current state of the biotech market.
Dr. Nicole Paulk is the CEO, Founder, and President of Siren Biotechnology and has dedicated her career to advancing the field of gene therapy. With nearly two decades of expertise, Nicole has been at the forefront of developing cutting-edge advances to propel the field of gene therapy forward for a wide range of diseases. Nicole has held various leadership positions in academia and industry and most notably was an Assistant Professor of AAV Gene Therapy in the UCSF Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics before leaving to found Siren. Nicole has a B.S. in Medical Microbiology, a Ph.D. in Viral Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine from OHSU and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship and Instructorship in Human Gene Therapy at Stanford University prior to starting her lab at UCSF. Nicole is a pioneer in the development of next-generation AAV platforms for gene repair, gene transfer and gene editing, directed evolution for novel engineered capsid evolution, and comparative multi-omic approaches to interrogate translational AAV biology.

Sep 23, 2025 • 43min
Smart Humans: SuRo Capital CEO Mark Klein on the evolution of IPOs, the current market landscape, and the future of private markets.
Mark Klein is the Chairman, President, and CEO of SuRo Capital, a publicly traded investment fund that seeks to invest in high-growth, venture-backed private companies. A director of Learneo (formerly Course Hero) since 2020, Mr. Klein is also a current board member of a New York Stock Exchange-listed special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”), Churchill Capital Corp VII, for which he has served since February 2021. Additionally, since 2012, he has been Managing Member and Majority Partner at M. Klein & Company, LLC, an investment banking and advisory firm. Before joining SuRo, Mark held positions including Chairman and CEO at several public and private companies and served on a variety of corporate boards. He earned a bachelor’s degree with high distinction in Business Administration from Emory University and an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Sep 16, 2025 • 45min
Smart Humans: InfraHub Compute's Blake Hughes on the potential of real assets and investing in cloud computing hardware
Blake Hughes is currently Managing Director at InfraHub Compute and Vice President of Investment Sales at NexGen Cloud.

Sep 10, 2025 • 58min
Smart Humans: Pre-IPO briefing on the AI Landscape with Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund and Worth Media's Josh Kampel
Originally recorded on 4/22/25Slava Rubin of Vincent, Josh Kampel of Worth Media, and Jan-Erik Asplund, co-founder of Sacra, discussed how investors should approach the emerging AI ecosystem and its most promising companies.

Sep 2, 2025 • 50min
Smart Humans: EquityZen's CEO Atish Davda on the evolving landscape of pre-IPO investing and the hottest sectors in the space
Atish Davda is the co-founder and CEO of EquityZen, a marketplace for private investments, where he has driven product development, built the leadership team, and led operations since its founding 12 years ago. Previously, he was VP of Product at Ampush, launching its New York office, and began his career at AQR Capital Management, helping manage the firm’s $4B Global Stock Selection strategy.


