Jens Hilgers is a Berlin-based serial gaming entrepreneur. He’s been investing at the center of tech, gaming and esports since the late ‘90s – so he has seen esports journeys to the mainstream and sees where it’s going. Over the years, Jens has racked up a laundry list of titles, including co-founder and former CEO of ESL, co-founder and Chairman of G2 Esports and co-founder and former CEO of Bayes. Most notably, he is the founding general partner of the global early- and mid-stage gaming-focused investment company BITKRAFT Ventures. Jens has helped the firm reach impressive and success numbers. He oversaw the firm’s growth to a portfolio of over 50 companies. More recently, he helped BITKRAFT raise a $165M Venture Fund I in 2020. For someone who is widely considered one of esports’ first entrepreneurs, I can firmly say Jens lives up to the hype. In this episode, we talk about how COVID accelerated the esports trend, predictions of the future of esports, gaming EFTs, cloud gaming, virtual reality, digital citizenship, emerging markets and more. 
Guest - Jens Hilgers, Founding General Partner Bitkraft Ventures 
howardlindzon.com, Bitkraft.vc, masterthemeta.com 
Twitter: @howardlindzon, @JensHilgers, @BitkraftVC, @knutjensen 
linkedin.com/in/jenshilgers 
linkedin.com/company/bitkraftvc 
#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Jens Hilgers of BITKRAFT Ventures on the Future of Gaming and ESports (EP.144)

Hello, I’m Howard. I’ve been a financial industry entrepreneur and investor for over 20 years. I am a General Partner at Social Leverage - we invest in seed stage software companies. I was a co-founder of Stocktwits and a seed investor in Robinhood and Etoro. On this podcast, you will hear interviews with great entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, traders, and friends about their companies, their track records, and their new fave ideas and trends. This includes best ideas, worst investments, biggest failure, daily habits, and recommended reading. I know your time is precious, so I promise to keep it simple and on point.

Business

Investing

Careers

Management & Marketing

Business News

Shopping

Panic with Friends is taking a break. Today, the world is in a very different place from when we launched the podcast in March, 2020. We are continuing our content endeavor and created Trends with Friends to talk about market trends, dad life, luxury and wellness.

Find our new show, Trends with Friends, on your favorite podcast platform. New episodes every Saturday.
Spotify
Apple
Youtube

Subscribe to my blog and follow me on Twitter.

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Best of Panic: Jan van Eck of VanEck on Global Markets, Deglobalization, and Rising Interest Rates (EP.273)

In this Best of Panic re-run from November 22’, Jim O’Shaughnessy came back for a record fourth appearance. 
The previous time he was on, we talked about the real panic; I’d come back from vacation fired out of a cannon – only wanting to talk to my close friends or pimp some of our companies. But this time around I had a lot to talk to Jim about. He was guest number one on the show and since then the Fed had hiked another 75 basis points, Meta imploded (and has since turned around), and we were in the first innings of a new owner at Twitter. It’s fun to jump in a time capsule and explore how we were thinking about things at the time.
Once again, Jim was the calm voice of reason that helped us navigate the turbulent times we found ourselves in. 
The GOAT himself, Jim O’Shaughnessy is back for a record fourth appearance on Panic with Friends! And this time he’s slightly panicked by not being panicked. I convinced him to put on some slippers and start showing up for work. 
Guest - Jim O’Shaughnessy, Founder and CEO at OSV - O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC 
howardlindzon.com, osv.llc, osam.com, infiniteloopspodcast.com
Twitter: @howardlindzon , @jposhaughnessy, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 
linkedin.com/in/james-o-shaughnessy-b072bb
#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 
Show Notes:

Introduction (00:41)

Welcome Jim (05:29)

Strategy & Tactics (07:46)

Decision time (10:30)

Elon Musk (12:58)

Fixing Twitter (13:39)

Dealing with trolls (17:26)

The real reason Elon bought Twitter (23:06)

Excited about Artificial Intelligence (27:10)

AI ethics (30:02)

AI in medical research (31:45)

AI legal use case (33:15)

An Open AI is critical (36:05)

First $1B single creator LLC (36:34)

Old Models are collapsing (37:25)

A “Thiel-style” scholarship (39:09)

A revolution in Education (45:12)

A real meritocracy (45:56)

Human nature doesn’t change (48:19)

The next Robinhood could be Robinhood (49:46)

Wrapping up (53:05)

Closing thoughts (56:58)

Best of Panic: Jim O’Shaughnessy on Twitter, Navigating the Current Market, and our Artificially Intelligent Future (EP.272)

On this episode of Panic with Friends, I speak with my good friend Chris Temple. Chris is the co-founder and director of Optimist, an award winning documentary and impact studio. In today’s episode we dive deep into his latest film called ‘This is not Financial Advice’ which I took on the role of being an Executive Producer. 
In ‘This is not Financial Advice’, Glauber “Pro” Contessoto - an immigrant working multiple jobs and living in a 220-square–foot apartment - gambles his life savings on a joke cryptocurrency. Two months later, he became “The Dogecoin Millionaire” and a hero to his growing YouTube following. It’s easy to get rich online. But as Pro will soon discover, it’s even easier to lose it all. Amateur investors like Pro must navigate a landscape that’s rife with scams, bad advice, and FOMO. This is not Financial Advice exposes the startling risks and rewards of today’s market through expert commentary and the anxiety-inducing stories of real people trying to make millions. 
Media endorsement quotes: 

“A Truly Wild Ride. Couldn’t Recommend More.” - Vox

“A Thought-Provoking Masterpiece. Brilliantly Executed” - The Washington Post

“A Gripping Financial Horror Film” - The Guardian

“A Must Watch That Ricochets Between Euphoria and Despair” - CNBC

"Everyone Needs to See this Movie to Better Understand Their Relationship to Money." - Morgan Housel 


Guest - Chris Temple, Film Director at Optimist 
howardlindzon.com, optimist.co, TINFAFiilm.com 
Book Screening: tinfafilm.com/screenings
Exclusive TINFA Clip
Twitter: @howardlindzon, @TINFAFilm, @Christemple8, @OptimistFilms, @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 
Instagram: ChrisTemple, TINFAFilm
LinkedIn: christemple8
#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Time Stamps: 
0:00 - Intro
5:37 - Best Movie Lines and Movie Naming 
13:18 - Lessons From Independent Documentary Filmmaking 
18:01 - GameStop, Dogecoin, Memes
23:14 - Influencer's Use of Cryptocurrency for Profit 
30:23 - Upcoming Documentaries  
39:22 - Path to Success in Film Industry 
42:55 - Outro

Chris Temple of Optimist, An Award Winning Documentary & Impact Studio, Gives a Behind the Scenes of His Documentary ‘This is Not Financial Advice’  (EP.271)

As I mentioned when I covered how I built Wallstrip, I’m doing more origin stories over the next year. I’m covering my own projects as well as those of the ten or fifteen people from the companies I’ve loved and the products I’ve used in Web 2. There were mostly good exits, but there were also a few that we learned from. 
In today’s episode I’m back in the hot seat covering the lessons learned from building Stocktwits in a Web 2 world. Knut and Riley join me as we talk about what worked back then, and what it will take to succeed building a company moving forward. 
This is a very different era. Back then money was the game in a zero interest rate world. Today I think it’s more about the craft, and less about money. Do you know who your customer is? What are your margins? How are you going to make money, and how are you going to get your users? If founders and investors aren’t asking those questions today, they could be looking at massive losses down the road. I hope this helps and maybe gives you a peak at what might be coming around the corner as AI seems to be eating the world right now. Enjoy! 
Guest - Howard Lindzon, General partner at Social Leverage and Host of Panic With Friends Podcast 
Co-hosts - Knut Jensen and Riley Rosebee 
howardlindzon.com, stocktwits.com, socialleverage.com 
Twitter: @howardlindzon, @be_rosebee @PanicwFriends, @knutjensen 
Rosebee.beehiiv.com
linkedin.com/in/howardlindzon 
linkedin.com/company/socialleverage 
linkedin.com/in/knutejensen 
#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 
Show Notes:

Introduction (00:22)

Historic look at Web 2 (01:58)

Starting Stocktwits (03:25)

Why I didn’t wait (05:34)

Creating Bloomberg on Twitter (06:54)

Building the team (07:28)

Coming up with the name (08:03)

Raising money (09:24)

The first version (12:04)

Creating the branding (12:16)

The cap table (15:57)

Building around twitter (25:08)

The cash tag (18:16)

Building on our own (26:02)

Early Web 2 lessons (29:56)

Thoughts on AI (32:20)

Valuing deals (33:56)

Stocktwits culture (34:28)

Predicting the future (37:57)

Wrapping up (39:01)

Closing thoughts (42:58)

Jens Hilgers of BITKRAFT Ventures on the Future of Gaming and ESports (EP.144)

Download our free app to listen on your phone