Billion Dollar Moves™ with Sarah Chen-Spellings | Global Venture Capital

Despite Lu Zhang’s accelerated path from researcher to founder to investor — by age 30 —she still reveals how she feels like a failure everyday! This episode is one you'd want to tune into. Full episode here.

About Lu Zhang:

Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, is a renowned Silicon Valley based investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a Stanford Engineering alumna. Lu is a World Economic Forum (Davos) Young Global Leader and was recently selected as a Best 25 Female Investor by Business Insider. She has also garnered other accolades including the Featured Honoree in VC of Forbes 30 Under 30, Silicon Valley Women of Influence, and Town & Country 50 Modern Swans – Entrepreneurship Influencer. Lu is also on the Jury Board of Cartier Young Leader Award.

Prior to starting Fusion Fund, she was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company focused on non-invasive technology for the early diagnosis of Type II diabetes (acq. 2013).

Lu is a frequent speaker at tech events and conferences such as Davos Economic Forum, Future Investment Initiative (FII), Forbes, Web Summit, SuperReturn, etc. and also serves as a mentor and advisor to several tech innovation programs in Silicon Valley. Lu is the board member of the Youth Council of Future Forum and Future Science Award. She received her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

https://www.fusionfund.com/

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious next generation leader; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

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FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

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Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

Despite Lu Zhang’s accelerated path from researcher to founder to investor — by age 30 —she still reveals how she feels like a failure everyday! This episode is one you'd want to tune into.

About Lu Zhang:

Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, is a renowned Silicon Valley based investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a Stanford Engineering alumna. Lu is a World Economic Forum (Davos) Young Global Leader and was recently selected as a Best 25 Female Investor by Business Insider. She has also garnered other accolades including the Featured Honoree in VC of Forbes 30 Under 30, Silicon Valley Women of Influence, and Town & Country 50 Modern Swans – Entrepreneurship Influencer. Lu is also on the Jury Board of Cartier Young Leader Award.

Prior to starting Fusion Fund, she was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company focused on non-invasive technology for the early diagnosis of Type II diabetes (acq. 2013).

Lu is a frequent speaker at tech events and conferences such as Davos Economic Forum, Future Investment Initiative (FII), Forbes, Web Summit, SuperReturn, etc. and also serves as a mentor and advisor to several tech innovation programs in Silicon Valley. Lu is the board member of the Youth Council of Future Forum and Future Science Award. She received her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

https://www.fusionfund.com/

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious next generation leader; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

ICYMI: November Recap

Due to popular request since many of my episodes are a little bit long, this season, I’ll be serving up recaps at the end of each month. It features my quick thoughts on the top 3 things that left an impression on me and a short clip from each convo in one place so you can get a feel of both the episode and guest AND you can always dig deeper (which I highly recommend) by going to the actual episodes themselves which will be listed BELOW:

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Timestamps & episode links :

Rana el Kaliouby (Egyptian American Emotional AI Technologist & Founder, Affectiva, Status: Acquired): 0050

Tiwa York (Former CEO, Kaidee - largest Thailand C2C Marketplace, Status: Acquired): 0820

Jamal Bujang (MD, Gobi Partners & Former CEO, MAVCAP): 1545

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

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Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

From reluctant CEO, to seeding and scaling the original generation of venture capital funds in Malaysia as a limited partner investor to Managing Director of $1.2 Billion Pan-Asian VC fund, Jamal Bujang covers it all from how he took different leaps in his career, to how new venture capital funds can actually succeed with trust at the center of partnership, to the potential of Malaysia as the country heads into elections.

👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

About Jamal Bujang:

Jamaludin Bujang is the Managing Director, Malaysia at Gobi Partners. Gobi Partners is one of the longest standing venture capital firms with a Pan-Asian presence across North Asia, South Asia, and ASEAN with over USD 1.1bn in assets under management (AUM).

Jamal joined Gobi after a combined 23 years of experience in the private and public sector, including being CEO and Board Member of Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd. (MAVCAP); Malaysia's largest government owned venture firm responsible for spurring the VC ecosystem with over $1Bn in AUM today. Prior to joining MAVCAP, Jamaludin was the Director of Investments at Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC); and worked with 2 foreign-based finance institutions for a cumulative period of 3 years and spent 13 years in Malaysia's leading investment bank, with extensive exposure to investment banking, particularly in equity research, asset and investment evaluation, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions.

Jamaludin graduated with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration (Economics) from Wichita State University, Kansas, United States and a Masters degree in Business Law (Executive) from International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamaludin-bujang-a7b96458/

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

Tiwa York was brought in by the likes of Naspers and Tencent to clean up their e-commerce portfolio in Thailand; which resulted in the birth of Kaidee, Thailand`s largest C2C marketplace, serving at its peak over 35 million users who list close to 10 million products across 250+ categories from automotive to property for sales every year. Tune in to this fascinating conversation where we dive into why Tiwa tanked the title "CEO" for "Head Coach" to the challenges of bridging cultures in leading high-performing teams.

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 👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- Rethinking bridging cultures from East to West

- Incentivizing startup teams: how to make that work

- The intricacies of doing business in a fragmented Southeast Asia: and why that matters

About Tiwa York:

Tiwa York is an active angel investor and was the Founder and Head Coach of Kaidee (a.k.a CEO), Thailand’s largest C2C (Customer to Customer) marketplace. Kaidee, started in 2011 by Tiwa, has now become a C2C online marketplace serving over 30M users who list close to 10M products across 250+ categories from automotive to property for sales every year. Kaidee was recently acquired by Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), a Dubai-based bespoke online classified solutions provider, as part of its strategy to expand its footprint.

Tiwa has been recognized for his leadership and efforts to build the team and culture at Kaidee. He currently is a board member at Seven Peaks Software, Seekster, Skootar, and Hubba. Prior to his current role, he worked in digital advertising with leadership roles in Admax Network and Omnicom Media Group.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiwayork/

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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Podcast website: https://sarah-chen.com/billion-dollar-episodes

Watch on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/sarahchenglobal

Join the community: https://sarah-chen.ck.page/billiondollarmoves

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

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Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

And we are back with a bang! This week we dive deep into discussion on the ethics of AI, finding inspiration and executing on that founder's vision while finding purpose along the way, even post-exit, with the global pioneer of Emotional AI, Rana el Kaliouby!

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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 👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- Why ownership of your own career path is key

- Managing career transitions & how to dissociate your identity/worth with your career 

- Rethink again: how do you know you've made the right decision?

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About Rana (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaliouby/)

A pioneer in artificial emotional intelligence (Emotion AI), Dr. Rana el Kaliouby is Deputy CEO at Smart Eye and formerly, Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT spinoff and category-defining company. Rana realized a successful exit for Affectiva in June 2021 when the company was acquired by Smart Eye, where she teams with Martin Krantz, Smart Eye’s CEO to scale the company to a global AI powerhouse. Rana is the bestselling author of the newly released book Girl Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology. She raised over $50 million in venture and strategic funding for Affectiva, where the company’s technology is used by automotive OEMs and tier 1 suppliers to improve road safety and the in-cabin experience, in addition to 25% of the Fortune Global 500 companies. Prior to founding Affectiva, Rana was a research scientist at MIT Media Lab. A TED speaker, Rana has been recognized on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list, Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech, Inc.'s Female Founders 100 list, and named one of the three Global Business pioneers by Bloomberg in 2017. Rana is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders and a Young Presidents' Organization member. Rana holds a BSc and MSc in Computer Science from the American University in Cairo, a PhD from the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate at MIT.

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website: https://sarah-chen.com/billion-dollar-episodes

Watch on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/sarahchenglobal

Join the community: https://sarah-chen.ck.page/billiondollarmoves

In today's Billion Dollar Moves Breakdown, we bust some myths on the startup and venture capital landscape with i2i Ventures General Partners, Misbah Naqvi and Kalsoom Lakhani.

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 👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- Valuations merited or inflated by foreign players?

- The triple threat of startups rising in the region: Edtech, Fintech, Ecommerce

- The secret sauce of Pakistan's recent rise

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More about i2i Ventures, Kalsoom Lakhani & Misbah Naqvi https://www.i2iventures.com/

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

--

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

#venturecapital #scaleup #startup #innovation

This week we dive deep (pun intended) with Paralympics Gold Medalist Susie Rodgers on winning, mental health, reinventing yourself and so much more. 

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 👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- Why ownership of your career path matters

- Managing career transitions & how to dissociate your identity/worth with your career 

- Managing mental health & the pressures of constant "high-performance"

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

03:12 - How Susie found sport with the intention of connection 

05:50 - A practical upbringing to be told "you just have to adapt"

08:07 - Finding her 'Ikigai'

13:54 - Mental health: Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, the expectation to win and perform

17:58 - Career and Identity

20:16 - Taking stock of winning 

27:59 - Billion Dollar Questions

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About Susie: (https://www.susannahrodgers.com/)

Susie wears prosthetic limbs on her left side and orthotics for her right foot. She has lived a life of disability since birth. She understands the complexity of inclusion, but is a strong believer in ability and capability, having used her determination to succeed in every aspect of her life. Susie believes that no one should be left behind; in education, work and in government and public life, as well as in society in general. Susie is an advocate and speaker on inclusion and diversity and is a role model and mentor to other people with disabilities, showing what is possible, through openly speaking about her own experiences as a disabled woman. 

Susie is also a former professional athlete who competed at two Paralympic Games winning a total of 30 international medals including 17 Gold. She became Paralympic Champion in the 50m Butterfly at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. At the London 2012 Paralympic Games, her first, she came away with three Bronze medals, British and European records. She went on to become multiple European and World Champion across her disciplines including 50m, 100m and 400m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly and 100m Backstroke. It wasn't until eight years after the start of her journey as a professional athlete, that she finally won individual Gold in the women's S7 classification 50m Butterfly at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. She set a European record of 35.07 and her shocked expression and reaction became a media highlight of the Games. Susie conducted her entire career as an athlete whilst still maintaining her professional career with a part-time role at the British Council as well as sitting on various Boards as a Director. 

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

--

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

"My biggest fear? Not achieving the potential of what I think this business can do, and achieving this vision I see"

This week, we dive deep with John Brisco, CEO and Co-Founder of Coherent, Hong-Kong grown insurtech startup on a mission to to build next-in-class technology platforms and data intelligence engines to help insurers and their partners transform and grow. From sales enablement to product development, Coherent is helping the insurers move away from legacy backend challenges. 

Building on their success in closing their series A round of funding in late 2020, Coherent is now expanding their business from Asia to the world.

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 👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How to transition from C-suite corporate executive to an entrepreneur: is it worth it?

- What it takes to disrupt problems in an age-old industry?

- Taking an Asian-grown product global

- Hiring and scaling great teams from day one

- Choosing the right investor for the long-run

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On Coherent:

https://www.coherent.global/

More on John Brisco: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbrisco/)

John is the leader and co-founder of Coherent. Every day, John works to inspire the Coherent team to create a brighter, more inclusive future for the insurance industry.

Having started his career in AXA and EY, John has accumulated a wealth of global experience in the insurance sector, most recently as COO and CIO at Manulife Asia. In his career to date, he has led teams in more than 45 countries across 5 continents.

With less than 10% of Asia’s population having any form of insurance, John is committed to helping the insurance industry become more inclusive. He believes that Coherent’s technology-enabled and data-intelligent products will help our customers to drastically improve the level of insurance penetration across Asia and other parts of the world.

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

--

PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website

Watch on Youtube

Join the community

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal

"The hardest lesson for me as a leader? I've chosen to be in this position. I chose to build this business. So it starts with me and it ends with me"

The family office was initially created to look after the wealth of ultra high net worth families. But today, the modern-day family office does far more than that and is in fact, acting a whole lot more like a venture investor. Today we talk to Field Pickering, COO, General Counsel and Head of Venture Investing at Vulpes, a family office built off the wealth of Stephen Diggle, who founded Artradis Fund Management. Artradis was an Asian long volatility biased multi strategy alternative asset manager, and at its helm grew assets under management from US$4 million to US$4.7 billion at its peak in 2008.

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 👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:

- How to ask and advocate for what you want in your career

- The evolution of family offices, particularly in Southeast Asia

- How Vulpes is taking a hunting, uninhibited approach to venture and reaping the rewards

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⏳ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro, what's on tap for this week

02:48 - Why you need to advocate for your own career - Field's journey from an unwilling lawyer turned venture investor

07:13 - Artradis making $3Bn from the Asian Financial Crisis, and how the family office began

09:55 - The growth of family offices in Asia Pacific

12:54 - Dealflow, building pipelines

13:06 - An unfettered approach to venture investing: too early, too late?

15:39 - Vulpes Special Opportunities Fund

20:06 - Portfolio construction and strategies

30:50 - Billion Dollar Questions

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More on Field Pickering: (https://vulpesinvest.com/teams/field-...)

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Billion Dollar Moves is THE show for the audacious; featuring the top US-Asia founders, funders and execs. From the growing pains of a unicorn journey to IPO, scaling a venture capital firm, we cover it all in the world of venture & business. Learn from the crème de la crème so YOU too, can make #billiondollarmoves — in venture, in business, in life.

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PODCAST INFO:

Podcast website: https://sarah-chen.com/billion-dollar-episodes

Watch on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/sarahchenglobal

Join the community: https://sarah-chen.ck.page/billiondollarmoves

FOLLOW SARAH:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal

Instagram: instagram.com/sarahchenglobal

Twitter: twitter.com/sarahchenglobal