"Can't Be Done"

We’re familiar with product/market fit, but have you ever considered product/person fit? Having empathy for the end user is what differentiates the companies that design technology for the benefit of humans from those that are simply out to make a profit. So, how do we design AI, VR and AR products that promote social good—and truly change people’s lives?

Sean White is the Chief R&D Officer for Mozilla, the non-profit company behind the Firefox browser. Sean also serves as a visiting lecturer at Stanford University as well as a judge for the environmental category of the International Tech Awards. An entrepreneur and inventor, Sean is dedicated to leading the development of the technologies that enable creative expression, connect us to each other, and enhance our understanding of the world around us.

Today, Sean joins us to share his background in academia and startups as well as his experience in the early days of mixed reality. He explains what is necessary to promote the widespread adoption of VR, how to identify your personal mission, and the value in asking questions about emerging technology through art. Listen in for insight around Mozilla’s role as a ‘trusted personal agent’ and learn how the company works to create product/person fit!

Topics Covered

Sean’s background in academia and startups

Mozilla’s take on their role in advancing technology

Sean’s experience in VR, AR and MR

Sean’s favorite recent AR experience

How to promote the wide adoption of VR/AR

Mozilla’s view of user identity in VR

Sean’s involvement with The Tech

Sean’s insight on finding your mission

Sean’s take on asking questions through art

How Mozilla tracks success and progress

Connect with Sean

Mozilla https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/

Mozilla on Twitter https://twitter.com/mozilla

Sean on Twitter https://twitter.com/seanwhite?lang=en

Sean on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanwhite/

Sean on Medium https://medium.com/@seanwhite

Resources

Favor https://favordelivery.com/

VIVE https://www.vive.com/us/product/vive-virtual-reality-system/

Oculus Go https://www.oculus.com/go/

Tribeca Film Festival https://www.tribecafilm.com/immersive

Fortnite https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/buy-now/battle-royale

The Tech Museum of Innovation https://www.thetech.org/

Crisis Text Line https://www.crisistextline.org/

FirefoxReality https://mixedreality.mozilla.org/

Mozilla ‘Hubs’ https://hubs.mozilla.com/

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/0307887448

The Lawnmower Man https://www.amazon.com/Lawnmower-Man-New-Line-Platinum/dp/6304604572

What’s different about the decentralized business model of a company like Coinbase? Why do they measure success based on customer experience? And how do they find the best talent with the right mindset to join the Coinbase team?

John Yi is the Group Product Manager for Services at Coinbase, a digital currency platform where merchants and consumers can transact with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Based in San Francisco, Coinbase is on a mission to champion economic freedom through innovation in digital currency. John’s role is to manage the teams that build the infrastructure for consumer products.

Today, John joins us to explain how a conversation at Occupy Wall Street sparked his interest in cryptocurrency. He shares Coinbase’s ‘hell yes’ hiring policy, describing the entrepreneurial mindset of the company’s team. John speaks to what’s different about a decentralized business model and the challenge of building interoperable products and scalable infrastructure. Listen in for John’s insight on the concept of non-fungible tokens and learn about Coinbase’s focus on customer experience!

Topics Covered

What sparked John’s interest in cryptocurrency

Coinbase’s transparent hiring policy

What’s different about the decentralized business model

How Coinbase employees get up to speed on the industry

What has surprised John about the crypto industry

John’s role at Coinbase

John’s definition of success

Connect with John

Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/

Resources

‘Bar Raisers at Coinbase: If You’re Not a Hell Yes, You’re a No’ on The Coinbase Blog https://blog.coinbase.com/bar-raisers-at-coinbase-if-youre-not-a-hell-yes-you-re-a-no-68145c6fbe60

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

‘The closer you get to 50/50 polarizing, the more viral you’re likely to go.’

Ameen Soleimani is the master of branding, coining terms for his blockchain startup like SpankBank and Booty call. Working with the porn industry lends itself to polarizing branding, but why does Ameen think porn also happens to be the most practical application of crypto technology?

Today, Ameen sits down with us to explain why the porn industry is a good application for crypto. He shares his surprise at being embraced by the greater Ethereum community and speaks to how he attracts top engineering talent. Ameen discusses the challenges of communicating with a distributed team and the current initiatives they are working on in SpankBank and SpankPay. Listen in for Ameen’s insight on viral branding and the power of polarization.

Topics Covered

What has surprised Ameen in working on SpankChain

Why the porn industry is a good fit for crypto

Ameen’s introduction to cryptocurrency

How the SpankChain distributed team communicates

SpankChain’s current priorities

How to attract talent to a project

Ameen’s advice around branding

Connect with Ameen

SpankChain https://spankchain.com/

Resources

Ameen’s Reddit Pitch Deck https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/6g9rzq/nsfw_spankchain_im_about_to_betamax_bitcoin/

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

What if every individual had the ability to invest in their community? Dan Finlay sees a future in which the blockchain allows us all to function as venture capitalists, investing in the people we trust in our social networks, using our social collateral to back the things we truly believe in.

Dan is a software developer and product lead at MetaMask, a bridge to the distributed web. The platform allows users to run Ethereum dApps (without running a full Ethereum node) and provides a user interface to facilitate private key management. Dan and the MetaMask team are passionate about making new technologies accessible to everyone.

Today, Dan sits down with us to explain how the CryptoKitties phenomenon fit his theory around the first viral crypto application. He speaks to his entry into the blockchain space as a natural extension of his interests in technology and governance. Dan describes the genesis of MetaMask and its aim to provide a gateway to P2P technology and provide the tools necessary to make usable apps. Listen in for Dan’s insight on social collateral and learn how social networks could be leveraged to make everyone a VC.

Topics Covered

Dan’s take on CrytoKitties

Dan’s introduction to cryptocurrency

The genesis of MetaMask

The long-term vision of MetaMask

Dan’s strength as an improviser

Dan’s insight on the concept of social collateral

Dan’s greatest accomplishments at MetaMask

Dan’s definition of success

Connect with Dan

MetaMask https://metamask.io/

Resources

CryptoKitties https://www.cryptokitties.co/

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

Esteban Ordano believes that decentralization is key to mitigating the risk that comes with digital communication, and his work uses VR to return our sense of immediacy, to recreate the personal connections that will lead to what he calls a ͚Renaissance of humanity.͛ So, what does the world look like at this intersection of virtual reality and cryptocurrency?

Esteban is the founder and CTO of Decentraland, a virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain where users can purchase land and build on it, limited only by their imaginations. Using a VR headset or web browser, Decentraland users become completely immersed in a 3D, interactive world where they can watch live music, shop with friends or even visit an underwater resort. Prior to Decentraland, Esteban worked as a software engineer at Google and BitPay.

Today, Esteban joins us to explain how the economic chaos in Argentina inspired his interest in the cryptocurrency space. He discusses the role decentralization plays in mitigating the risk of sharing information online and the way cryptographic systems facilitate radical governance. Esteban offers insight around Decentralands place at the intersection of virtual reality and cryptocurrency and how the platform enables the management of digital scarcity. Listen in to understand the major challenges of adoption in the VR and crypto space and learn how Decentraland is testing concepts of governance before they are applied in real life!

Topics Covered

Esteban’s introduction to the blockchain

What sparked Esteban’s interest in Bitcoin

The most important role of decentralization

How cryptographic systems facilitate radical governance

The intersection of VR and cryptocurrency

The significance of digital scarcity

What the world might look like in 10 years if Decentraland succeeds

The major challenges of crypto and VR adoption

Esteban’s definition of success

Connect with Esteban

Decentraland https://decentraland.org/

Resources

Streamium https://streamium.io/

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

So many ICOs, so few products on the market. One of the rare startups that has managed to launch a decentralized product is Golem Network.

Golem runs on the same principle as Airbnb, leveraging the sharing economy of decentralized tech to connect many computers in a peer-to-peer network. The same way that Airbnb hosts mobilize their unused resources (i.e.: spare bedrooms) to generate income, Golem users lend out their available computing power, giving software developers the ability to distribute tasks that are too heavy to be computed on a single node. The result is a global, open-source supercomputer powered by the blockchain.

Julian Zawistowski is the Founder and CEO of Golem Factory, the company behind the Golem distributed network. An economist by trade, Julian is fascinated by blockchain technology and the economics of decentralized systems. Prior to his work with Golem, Julian served as a consultant and public policy researcher and that experience frames his understanding of the transformative potential of decentralized technology.

Today, Julian joins us to explain why Golem was the right kind of project for a token sale. He covers the evolution of Golem, from its inception to the current use case in CGI rendering. Julian offers insight around delivering a decentralized product, and we talk scalability—the biggest problem in the token space. Listen in as Julian shares how Golem might expand to include other use cases and learn about the blockchain’s potential to solve for the crisis of trust.

Topics Covered

Julian’s introduction to the crypto space

The idea behind Golem’s decentralized technology

The current use case for Golem

Julian’s approach to fundraising for Golem

Julian’s take the types of projects that work for tokens

What Golem looks like today

Julian’s insight on delivering a decentralized product

The future of Golem

The biggest problems in the token space

How the world will change if decentralized systems succeed

Connect with Julian

Golem Network https://golem.network/

Resources

SETI@home https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

Only a handful of investment firms were brave enough to enter the crypto space back in the early 2010’s. Those pioneers have witnessed quite an evolution in the blockchain space, and they have gone from being the black sheep of venture capital to enjoying a red-carpet experience with every hedge fund manager on Wall Street.

Paul Veradittakit is a Partner with Pantera Capital, a leading investment firm focused exclusively on projects related to blockchain technology, digital currency and crypto assets. Paul helped launch the firm’s second venture fund, and he sits on the boards of OpenToken and BitOasis. Prior to joining Pantera in 2014, Paul worked at Strive Capital, where he focused on investments in the mobile space.

Today, Paul sits down with us to share his Bitcoin origin story and discuss the evolution of the market since 2014. He offers his take on how the crypto market is changing, explaining why the best talent is coming into the space right now. Listen in as Paul speaks to the tokens that get him up in the morning and addresses the lack of standardization around how entrepreneurs utilize capital.

Topics Covered

How Paul got into the Bitcoin space

Paul’s take on the evolution of crypto

Paul’s insight on the future of the blockchain

The tokens that get Paul up in the morning

What surprises Paul about the current market

Paul’s definition of success

Connect with Paul

Resources

Connect with Boost VC

The startups that become really big, really fast are capitalist mutations or ‘Thunder Lizards’ that force the world to react to their agenda. Their founders refuse to accept the world as is and write their own rules, rather than conforming to the systems in place. This is how VC Mike Maples identifies the entrepreneurs he wants to support, the Prime Movers he can serve as not just an investor but a coconspirator.

Mike is the founding partner at Floodgate, a venture capital fund focused on backing Prime Movers before others believe. Mike has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010, and his investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv, ngmoco, Weebly, and Lyft, among many others. Prior to his career in VC, Mike founded two successful startups of his own, Tivoli Systems and Motive. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Today, Mike joins us at Boost to share the concept of the ‘Thunder Lizard,’ and explain why he prefers to work with Prime Movers. He discusses how he got involved with venture capital, who he goes to for advice, and his approach to cultivating humility. Mike offers insight around the time value to decision-making and the idea of progress by way of competing alternatives. Listen in to understand cryptocurrency’s potential to make trust free and get Mike’s advice for aspiring VCs.

Topics Covered

The concept of the ‘Thunder Lizard’

Why Mike prefers to work with Prime Movers

Mike’s path to venture capital

Who Mike goes to for advice

Mike’s approach to decision-making

Mike’s advice for aspiring VCs

How Mike cultivates humility

Mike’s take on the crypto space

Mike’s insight on the job of technology

The current problem with currencies

Connect with Mike

Resources

Connect with Boost VC

‘I wanted to play with Barbies, but I also loved smashing up a computer and learning about silicon chips.’

Despite growing up in a tech savvy, entrepreneurial family, Jesse Draper didn’t see herself as a venture capitalist for a long time because ‘that’s not what women do.’ So, how do we level the playing field and get girls to see themselves in roles as startup founders, investors and board members?

Jesse is the founding partner of Halogen Ventures, a VC firm focused on early-stage investing in female-founded consumer technology startups. Her portfolio includes Laurel & Wolf, Carbon38, the Skimm, HopSkipDrive and Sugarfina, among many others. Jesse is also the creator and host of 2015 Emmy-nominated series The Valley Girl Show, producing and distributing 500 interviews with some of the greatest minds in technology and entrepreneurship. She has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Mashable and Forbes, and Jesse serves on the board of Werk, SurfAir and nonprofit Bizworld.

Today, Jesse joins us at Boost to share her path to becoming a venture capitalist and offer insight around women in VC. She explains the impetus behind The Valley Girl Show, discussing the hustle required to launch and sustain a long-running tech talk show in the broken media industry. Listen in to understand how Jesse eventually came to see herself as a capable VC and learn how to raise girls who aren’t afraid to build jetpacks or take apart computers.

Connect with Jesse

Resources

Connect with Boost VC

Imagine having a private band or orchestra talented enough to extemporaneously compose, orchestrate and perform the soundtrack to your life, adjusting to the environment or your emotions in real time? Better yet, what if YOU had the ability to create audio content that would adapt to any given situation in an immersive space?

Ryan Groves is an award-winning music researcher and veteran developer of intelligent music systems. He also serves as the President and CPO of Melodrive, an adaptive music generation mechanism that uses artificial intelligence to create and integrate original music on any digital platform, be it a video game, virtual world or augmented reality system.

Today, Ryan sits down with us at Boost VC to offer his insight on the future of music and explain how Melodrive is working to change the way we consume it. He also explains the concept of ‘uncanny valley’ and shares his take on how long we have before AI takes over the world. Listen in to understand how Melodrive allows users to create audio content that adapts to its interactive environment in real time and learn how this technology might redefine the way we experience music.

Connect with Ryan

Resources

Connect with Boost VC