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

By Sarah Chen-SpellingsBusiness Investing

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

July 16, 2021 BONUS: The Golden Era of Southeast Asia Startups
Dive into our post-show Clubhouse discussion Apr 16th 2021 with fellow VCs in the region, where we went deep on the rise of startups in Southeast Asia, fresh of Grab's announcement that week valuing it at close to $40Bn, Bukalapak netting $234M and more!

Special cameo by:
Rajive Keshup, Investments Director, Cathay Innovation
Gail Wong, Managing Partner, Her Capital
Carlo Delantar, Head of Circular Economy, Gobi Partners

Venture capitalist, Michael Lints of Singapore-based Golden Gate Ventures shares some #BillionDollarMoves we all will want in on.

👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:
- How Southeast Asia's startup scene came to be
- How venture capitalists are viewing Southeast Asia right now
- The unique challenges of building & investing in Southeast Asia
- The impact post-pandemic on markets, and how startups are innovating
- How the racial reckoning is affecting others around the globe

More on Michael:
Michael Lints has over 20 years of experience helping innovative businesses obtain the resources, insights, and expertise they need in order to be successful. Michael has been a startup operator, investor, and mentor, and is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include LP fundraising and portfolio management for Golden Gate Venture's investments at Series B and beyond.

Outside of work, sport is an essential part of Michael’s life. He is a former member of the Dutch karate team and the former ambassador for Treknology (Trek bikes distributor in Singapore). Michael actively participates in Ironman 70.3 races and marathons. He is also passionate about social justice and uses sport as a vehicle to raise awareness for important issues such as civil rights, economic opportunity, and education. Besides sport, Michael is an active writer and writes articles regarding life, balance, and venture capital on michaellints.com.
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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
23 min
July 16, 2021 Southeast Asia Startups Winning with Michael Lints, Golden Gate Ventures
From our live show Apr 16th 2021, we went deep on the rise of startups in Southeast Asia, fresh of Grab's announcement that week valuing it at close to $40Bn, Bukalapak netting $234M and more!
Michael shares some #BillionDollarMoves we all will want in on.
👊🏻 3 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:
- How venture capitalists are viewing Southeast Asia right now
- The impact post-pandemic on markets, and how startups are innovating
- How the racial reckoning is affecting others around the globe
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⏳ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
01:29 - Michael's personal journey through resilience
09:11 - Southeast Asia's hot week: Grab's SPAC, Bukalapak's raise & more
14:20 - The challenge of building & investing in Emerging Asia
18:59 - 700+ startup exits in Southeast Asia?
21:07 - Post-Pandemic view on markets
24:15 - Michael's view on the moment in time, and the racial reckoning
27:50 - Michael's advice to founders
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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
35 min
July 09, 2021 Future of Work: How To Lead in 2021 with Brian Elliott, Slack
This week, we went deep on the new reality that is remote work with none other than Brian Elliiott, former GM of Platform at Slack, and now Head of Future Forum — reimagining work.
From building for inclusivity to sending the right message from the top - he shares some #BillionDollarMoves we all will want in on.
👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:
- Why 83% of knowledge workers DO NOT WANT to return to the office
- How executive leaders can lead effectively remotely in 2021 and beyond
- The unique challenges of work from home for different groups and what leaders can do
- The impact post-pandemic for the future of work
- How to rethink productivity metrics to bring out the best in your distributed teams

⏳ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
02:36 - Brian's career mantra
04:26 - The Lift & Shift - 83% of knowledge workers do not want to return to the office
08:00 - Social isolation affecting different groups differently
11:42 - Leaders rethinking culture, tackling different challenges including systemic racism
14:12 - Global work and distributed teams
16:50 - The future of work
21:36 - Power dynamics, trust and empathy in the C-suite
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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
28 min
July 02, 2021 The Rise of Superapps & The Fear of a Meaningless Life with Muneeb Maayr, Bykea
“Even if you’re drowning, give it one last shot”

Ride-hailing giant Gojek and marketplace Tokopedia, Indonesia’s two largest startups, said a couple of days ago that they’ve merged their businesses to form GoTo Group, on track for a $35-$40B IPO end year. This sets more fuel to the fire of SuperApps rising in Southeast Asia: a trend that is actually moving from East to West. But is it all that it's cut out to be?

Muneeb Maayr, Founder of Bykea joins us this week on #BillionDollarMoves to unpack the news & share his game plan for Bykea, Pakistan's hyper-local marketplace powered by a network of Motorcycles (p.s, there are 17 million in Pakistan!)
From the rise of SuperApps to the unique challenges of the two-wheeler opportunity in a country like Pakistan, to the fear of a meaningless life, Muneeb Maayr and I cover it all!
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👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:
- Will everything eventually be a Superapp & why?
- What a hyper-local strategy actually means
- The immense competition of global brands & how that impacts a local startup
- The payments revolution - cash on delivery in the East?
- How Bykea is thinking about the future of digitization and building trust

More on Bykea: https://www.bykea.com/
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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
1 hr 3 min
June 25, 2021 The End of Impact Washing & Stakeholder Capitalism with Regional President, BNY Mellon, Karen Wawrzaszek
Over a decade ago, JPMorgan and the Rockefeller Foundation, published a report claiming that impact investment was an emerging asset class that would reach between $400 billion and $1 trillion in assets under management by 2020. Many thought this was an ambitious prediction but fast forward, we now see how those doubts were misplaced with markets hitting $715 billion in assets under management in 2020.
Against the backdrop of the reckoning of 2020, our lens on impact dollars has become tremendously important. But is there far too much sensationalization of impact? How do we stay grounded on metrics that really matter?
We talked with Karen Wawrzaszek to unpack this, in March 2021 on our very first episode recorded!
From growing up in poverty to advising some of the wealthiest families, endowments & foundations; having held roles including MD of Rockefeller Capital Management to now Chair of the Meyer Foundation and BNY Mellon Regional President- we learn from her #BillionDollarMoves and challenge how impact investing has gone wrong — and what more needs to be done.

In this episode, you will learn:

- What it means to have lived in poverty, and how you can channel personal scars into purpose
- Impact washing and this moment in time
- The triple threat of inequality
- How do we DESIGN & measure impact – is doing no harm, good enough?
- Key investment trends arising from the rise of millennials and environmental, social, governance (ESG)
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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: 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
40 min
June 18, 2021 Sold My Startup for $780M: the Good, Bad, Ugly with Jack Smith, Vungle
This week we went deep on the growing pains of a startup, from PR nightmares to co-founder breakups, the challenge of shifting from a scarcity to growth mindset, and so much more with Jack Smith, serial entrepreneur & investor. @_jacksmith has co-founded multiple startups: Vungle, Coin, Shyp and advised many others. We talk everything from his startup outgrowing him to his lack of focus getting him to the right place & right time.
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👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:
- How Jack's curiosity from a tender age carried him through as an entrepreneur
- The value of an incubator - should you join one?
- What it takes to get to product-market fit, and then scale
- What it means to outgrow your startup, and what you can do
- The harsh reality of a startup's PR nightmare

⏳ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
02:29 - Jack's early start in entrepreneurship
05:03 - Mediaroots evolution into Vungle
08:36 - Hacking screen record & how that led to San Francisco
10:49 - Should I join an incubator? Jack's learning from AngelPad
16:31 - The crappy engineer, launching to the next few stages
21:33 - What metrics mattered, that affirmed the Vungle vision?
24:42 - Jack's reflection on how the startup outgrew him
28:06 - Micromanaging to enabling others
30:50 - Handling a PR nightmare, and standing by his co-founder
32:40 - Jack's reflection on "making it" with the BIG exit
—
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
41 min
June 18, 2021 BONUS: Building a $780M Startup with Jack Smith —offline discussion with the audience
“Never build a startup without a technical founder”
“Never go to a VC without a well thought out pitch deck”
“Never hire people from Craigslist”

From breaking all these rules and more, this week's guest, serial entrepreneur and now investor, Jack Smith, somehow turned a terrible idea into a $780M+ exit. This snippet reveals Jack in his rare raw form being brutally honest with the audience on Clubhouse. @_jacksmith has co-founded multiple startups: Vungle, Coin, Shyp and advised many others. We talk everything from his startup outgrowing him to his lack of focus getting him to the right place & right time.
—
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: 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
36 min
June 11, 2021 Big Tech & The Global Entrepreneurial Revolution with Chris Schroeder
This week, we went deep on the Global Entrepreneurial Revolution shaping our future with renowned American investor & entrepreneur, Christopher Schroeder.
From the dominance of big tech, to the digital divide to startups rising in the Middle East - we cover it all with Chris.
Chris is the co-founder of Next Billion Ventures, a venture capital (VC) fund focused on the next billion digital consumers across global emerging markets and is also a Network Partner for Village Global, an early VC fund backed by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sara Blakely, Jeff Bezos, Reid Hoffman et al. Chris started in politics with the George W Bush (Senior) presidential campaign before becoming the CEO of the Washington Post/ Newsweek interactive. He then co-founded Health Central which was backed by the likes of Sequoia, Polaris Ventures and the Carlyle Group and was acquired by Remedy Health in 2012. In 2013, Chris published the first book on the Middle East & North Africa’s entrepreneurship scene called: Startup Rising — The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East — with a forward by renowned investor Marc Andreessen.
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👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:
- What it takes to shift from being an intrapreneur to entrepreneur
- How entrepreneurship has become a global lingua franca
- Startups thriving across the world and yet a growing digital divide
- The challenge of big tech and increasing monopoly, can markets self-correct?
- Landscape of innovation in different regions: the rise of superapps

⏳ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
02:49 - Chris' personal chapters as founder to funder & actualizing multiple visions
04:49 - Are entrepreneurs born or made?
06:16 - Shifting from intrapreneur to entrepreneur
12:06 - The lens of a venture capitalist and the lingua franca of entrepreneurship
17:06 - The Venn diagram between impact and profit closing in on each other
18:39 - The role of government and entrepreneurship, big tech
25:33 - Copycat models or real innovation?
27:50 - Chris' interest in Middle East and the startup revolution in the region
31:33 - Chris' advice for founders
—
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: 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
37 min
June 11, 2021 {EXTENDED} Big Tech & The Global Entrepreneurial Revolution with Renowned American Investor, Chris Schroeder
[BONUS] Includes the post-show discussion on Clubhouse this week where we went deep on the Global Entrepreneurial Revolution shaping our future with renowned American investor & entrepreneur, Christopher Schroeder. From the dominance of big tech, to the digital divide to startups rising in the Middle East - we cover it all.

Chris is the co-founder of Next Billion Ventures, a venture capital (VC) fund focused on the next billion digital consumers across global emerging markets and is also a Network Partner for Village Global, an early VC fund backed by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sara Blakely, Jeff Bezos, Reid Hoffman et al. Chris started in politics with the George W Bush (Senior) presidential campaign before becoming the CEO of the Washington Post/ Newsweek interactive. He then co-founded Health Central which was backed by the likes of Sequoia, Polaris Ventures and the Carlyle Group and was acquired by Remedy Health in 2012. In 2013, Chris published the first book on the Middle East & North Africa’s entrepreneurship scene called: Startup Rising — The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East — with a forward by renowned investor Marc Andreessen.
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👊🏻 5 THINGS YOU'LL LEARN:
- What it takes to shift from being an intrapreneur to entrepreneur
- How entrepreneurship has become a global lingua franca
- Startups thriving across the world and yet a growing digital divide
- The challenge of big tech and increasing monopoly, can markets self-correct?
- Landscape of innovation in different regions: the rise of superapps
--
⏳ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
02:49 - Chris' personal chapters as founder to funder & actualizing multiple visions
04:49 - Are entrepreneurs born or made?
06:16 - Shifting from intrapreneur to entrepreneur
12:06 - The lens of a venture capitalist and the lingua franca of entrepreneurship
17:06 - The Venn diagram between impact and profit closing in on each other
18:39 - The role of government and entrepreneurship, big tech
25:33 - Copycat models or real innovation?
27:50 - Chris' interest in Middle East and the startup revolution in the region
31:33 - Chris' advice for founders
34:34 - Post show discussion with VCs+wider audience
—
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: 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
52 min
June 04, 2021 Zilingo's Journey with Ankiti Bose
At 23, Ankiti co-founded Zilingo in 2015 with the vision of bridging the technology gap within the fashion and lifestyle supply chain to help small merchants and traders go digital. Under her leadership, Zilingo had raised over $300 million from prominent investors Sequoia to Temasek, scaled to over 8 countries, with over 10,000 merchants and 7 million active users.
Editor's note: Since this interview, Ankiti Bose is no longer at the helm of Zilingo. Our goal at Billion Dollar Moves is to continue to build understanding on the stories in the US-Asia venture ecosystem, delivering them as raw as possible through the lens of our guest; and for you to make your own judgment.
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👊🏻 5 THINGS SHARED:
- How to bring an idea you're inspired by to conviction
- Thinking about a pivot? Making that big decision and what it takes
- What metrics matter at a stage of hypergrowth
- The digital uptake & uprising across markets
- The cost of fast fashion & what we must all do for real sustainability in a world of an inferno of desire
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⏳ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - What's on tab for this week: fast fashion, digitizing fashion
02:58 - Intro- from an idea to building an empire
04:45 - From inspiration to conviction: testing the market
07:15 - The big pivot?
13:47 - What metrics matter in hypergrowth?
18:12 - ESG & fast fashion
24:55 - The inferno of desire & the problems of consumerism, big tech
32:27 - Global patterns, the future of e-commerce
36:20 - From Southeast Asia to the world?
43:08 - Special! Cameo from the audience
53:26 - BILLION DOLLAR QUESTIONS
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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
58 min