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 t...
Sep 19, 2018•49 min
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...
Sep 17, 2018•1 hr 7 min
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 ...
Sep 14, 2018•35 min
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 Leader Erik starts by asking each of them to describe their view on the healthcare industry from their unique individual backgr...
Sep 12, 2018•51 min
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. T...
Sep 10, 2018•57 min
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...
Sep 07, 2018•1 hr 13 min
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 environme...
Sep 05, 2018•1 hr 19 min
On this episode Erik talks to Jonathan Cheeseman (@JonathanCheesm4), Chief Market Strategist at Distributed Global and Herve Bizira (@hibizira), CTO of Distributed Global. They talk about crypto markets and the funds that have been created to take advantage of a new investment opportunity. John and Herve explain what they are trying to do at Distributed Global and the unique combination of tech and finance they use to evaluate crypto assets at the micro and macro level. They explain what reflexi...
Aug 31, 2018•1 hr 8 min
Andrew Cronk (@ajcronk), partner at Figment, joins Erik again for this bonus episode going into generalized mining. Andrew contrasts sending someone money via PayPal with sending someone money via a decentralized network. He talks about whether firms with different approaches in the space can co-exist and what it means to be a validator. He discusses why it's important for a firm to be an active participant in a network. Andrew also explains how and why they've set up Figment to be itself a dece...
Aug 31, 2018•47 min
Erik is joined by Nicholas Chirls (@nchirls), partner at Notation Capital, and Joe Lallouz (@JoeLallouz), entrepreneur, angel, and founder of Grand St. They explain how they got their start in the space and the genesis of their respective firms. They talk about generalized mining and how a firm might get into mining. They discuss the various crypto networks and talk about how the way an investment firm provides value to a crypto company has changed. Nicholas and Joe also talk about traditional V...
Aug 31, 2018•51 min
Dandelion Mane (@decentralion), founder of SourceCred, joins Erik on this mind-expanding episode about identity. Dandelion explains how they came upon the idea for a decentralized reputation system and how it could change how people live — both online and in the real world. Dandelion explains some potential improvements that could be made to online communities to improve the level of discourse and avoid the outrage mobs that are currently too prevalent in those communities. They also talk about ...
Aug 31, 2018•51 min
In this episode Erik and co-host Miles Snyder of Multicoin Capital talk to Ameen Soleimani (@ameensol), CEO at SpankChain, and Jehan Tremback (@JTremback), founder of Althea Mesh. Ameen is one of the inventors of a token-curated registry. He discusses what a token-curated registry is, what the current use cases for them are and what they could possibly be in the future. They talk about AdChain and the problem of advertising fraud online. The three of them discuss the "chicken and egg" problem th...
Aug 31, 2018•37 min
In this episode Erik talks to Aparna Krishnan (@aparnalocked), co-founder of Mechanism Labs and Haseeb Qureshi (@hosseeb), GP at MetaStable Capital. They discuss a number of themes around Aparna's research paper, talk about what it means to find consensus, and they go through the various protocols that exist now to try and do that. They also talk about what kinds of applications these various protocols could have. They explain what a block is, what proof of work and proof of stake mean, and why ...
Aug 31, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Nik Bhatia (@timevalueofbtc), writer and Bitcoin thinker, joins Erik and co-host Myles Snider of Multicoin Capital on this episode to talk layers of Bitcoin and the Lightning network. Nik explains how he got his start in the Bitcoin world from traditional finance. They explain the various layers of money and Bitcoin. They also talk about whether there will be fractional reserve ownership of Bitcoin, whether Bitcoin banks might exist someday and when a Bitcoin ETF might make an appearance. Thanks...
Aug 31, 2018•56 min
Elena Nadolinski (@leanthebean), an engineer interested in the privacy space, and Howard Wu (@1HowardWu), co-founder of Dekrypt Capital, talk to Erik on this episode about zero-knowledge proofs and privacy. They talk about why privacy is important in general and the benefits of privacy in the crypto world. They explain what a zero-knowledge proof is and Howard talks about some of the more recent developments in cryptography. They get into how ZKPs are being used today and the promise they hold f...
Aug 31, 2018•41 min
Erik's guests for this episode are: - Andrew Cronk (@ajcronk), partner at Figment - Meher Roy (@MeherRoy), co-founder of Chorus One - Jake Brukhman (@jbrukh), founder of CoinFund They talk about a number of interesting topics, including the unique way that an investment firm participates in the growth of a company in the crypto world and why it's more important to be a network participant than just a funder. The four of them go through what a validator is and what being one entails. They talk ab...
Aug 31, 2018•1 hr 7 min
Michael Goldstein (@bitstein), president of the Nakamoto Institute and co-host of the Noded Podcast, joins Erik on this episode. Between him and Erik they break down some of the basic concepts around Bitcoin and explain why it's important in general. Michael explains why he's keen to feast on the tears of nocoiners and breaks down a number of the common misconceptions about Bitcoin. He also talks Austrian economics and potential roadblocks for Bitcoin. Thanks for listening — if you like what you...
Aug 31, 2018•1 hr 9 min
Arianna Simpson (@AriannaSimpson), VC and managing director at Autonomous Partners and Travis Kling (@Travis_Kling) of Ikigai Asset Management join Erik on this episode. Arianna starts by explaining her post about false precision and why you don't want to be "very precisely wrong." They talk various models and calculations and how to value different crypto assets. They also talk about Bitcoin maximalists, what the landscape of crypto networks looks like, and whether the huge trades made in the p...
Aug 31, 2018•32 min
Elena Nadolinski (@leanthebean), an engineer interested in the privacy space, and Avichal Garg (@avichal), Managing Partner at Electric Capital, join Erik on this episode to discuss privacy coins. They break down what a privacy coin is and why privacy is important in crypto. They talk about the three main privacy coins: Monero, Zcash and Grin — and discuss why it's important or not to have an auditable record of transactions, whether people will pay taxes, and whether the government will be able...
Aug 31, 2018•37 min
This episode of Venture Stories is co-hosted by Dani Grant (@thedanigrant), analyst at USV. She talks with three leaders in the distributed computing space: - Dan Desjardins, CEO of Distributed Compute Labs - Chandler Song (@chandlersyf), founder and CEO of Ankr Network - Greg Osuri (@GregOsuri), founder of Akash Network and CEO of Overclock Labs They talk about what distributed computing is, why it has so much potential and why this is an exciting time to be involved in the space. The guests ta...
Aug 31, 2018•41 min
Erik's co-host for this episode is Myles Snider (@myles_snider), research associate at Multicoin Capital. They talk to Haseeb Qureshi (@hosseeb) who is a GP at MetaStable Capital. They discuss where stablecoins are now and envision what they could be in the future. They compare and contrast stablecoins and fiat and explain why someone would hold a stablecoin that's indexed to fiat. They talk about some of the applications for stablecoins and the different kinds of stablecoins. The trio also disc...
Aug 29, 2018•1 hr 10 min
Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean), the author of The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, joins Erik for a very interesting and highly quotable interview. He expands on a number of topics from his book but also gets into a lot that isn’t in the book. He recounts the story of money from an Austrian perspective and describes why the world never really had a complete gold standard. Saif explains how government became addicted to printing money, how Bitcoin could turn out ...
Aug 27, 2018•1 hr 21 min
Vijay Boyapati (@real_vijay), software engineer, crypto thinker and proponent of Austrian economics, joins Erik on this episode to talk about a number of interesting topics. They start with a primer on Austrian economics, what makes it different from other schools of economics, and why economics is a unique science with different schools of thought — “there isn’t a Chicago school of physics or a Marxist school of chemistry.” Vijay speculates on why Austrian economics has become a niche school of...
Aug 24, 2018•53 min
Erik is joined by two very exciting guests for this episode — Bill Tai, venture capitalist and director at Bitfury, and Derek Hsue (@derek_hsue), investor at Blockchain Capital. The three have a very engaging discussion about the mining landscape in cryptocurrencies, the similarities and differences between now and the early growth of the semiconductor industry, as well as the issues, obstacles and misconceptions standing in the way of new entrants to the mining sector. They get into the details...
Aug 22, 2018•1 hr 19 min
Erik and his co-host Tony Sheng (@tonysheng) of Decentraland interview Nic Carter (@nic__carter), partner at Castle Island Ventures and co-founder of Coinmetrics.io. Nic explains why Bitcoin might end up like gold, where everyday people have little day-to-day interaction with it but it has a big influence on the monetary system, and how Bitcoin can be a check on the behavior of central banks. He explains why he started Castle Island Ventures, explains its philosophy and how they plan to invest. ...
Aug 20, 2018•1 hr 8 min
Trent McConaghy (@trentmc0) returns for another interview with Erik. He’s the founder of Ocean Protocol and BigchainDB. In this episode, he starts by explaining Ocean Protocol’s mission and gives us a history of how the overall philosophy of the web has changed over the years, going from what could be called Web 1 to Web 2.0 to the yet-to-be-written story of Web 3. He explains how the web started out as a tool for democratizing access and how Web 2.0 created some undesirable effects when it come...
Aug 17, 2018•1 hr 3 min
Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis), CTO of Coinbase, joined Erik on stage in San Francisco at the Founders Embassy Borderless Summit in June 2018 for a fascinating conversation about the coming impact of blockchain technology. They discuss how the world will change as work and entertainment — but especially finance — become virtual. Balaji explains why governments will need to compete for the best individuals and explains the new role of government in a “borderless” world. He also discusses his recent...
Aug 15, 2018•26 min
Today’s guest is Jimmy Song (@jimmysong), crypto developer and teacher. He is a venture partner at Blockchain Capital and creator of the Programming Blockchain course. Jimmy has been a crypto developer for a long time now (in crypto terms), teaches programming blockchain, and has written a number of influential posts on crypto. He talks about how he got into crypto and what about it was so appealing to him. He explains how an economic lens, rather than a technical lens, is what brought him to bl...
Aug 13, 2018•1 hr 4 min
In a first-ever two-hour episode for Venture Stories by Village Global, Erik talks to two of the most interesting crypto thinkers around: Arjun Balaji (@arjunblj), crypto investor, trader and incubator, and Murad Mahmudov (@MustStopMurad), crypto analyst and angel investor. In this wide-ranging and mind-expanding interview, the three discuss a number of topics relating to cryptocurrencies, effects on government, economic history, and predictions for the future, among many other things including:...
Aug 10, 2018•2 hr 2 min
Joining Erik for this episode are Felix Feng (@felix2feng), founder of Set Protocol and Nadav Hollander (@NadavAHollander), founder of Dharma Protocol. Felix and Nadav explain their respective companies and what they are looking to do for the open financial system. They talk about how the coming wave of decentralization in financial services will bring the same accessibility and ease of use that individuals are accustomed to with Web 2.0 services to financial services as well. They discuss the...
Aug 08, 2018•59 min
