Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon

On this week’s episode, I got the chance to talk with Jamie Wise, a fellow Canadian and the brains behind the hottest ETF on the markets right now. The VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF, trading under $BUZZ, garnered a lot of buzz (pun intended) when it started trading on March 4 thanks in-part to backing from influential Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. What’s exciting about the BUZZ ETF is that it uses AI to analyze investor sentiment across over 15 million online posts a month. The ETF currently holds 75 stocks with at least a $5 billion market cap. The power of measuring sentiment has been on my mind for a while; we even announced our own sentiment tracker at Stocktwits back in 2012. And on the heels of the GameStop event, conversations about sentiment and its power have never been more important. In this episode, Jamie and I chat about his company BUZZ Holdings, ETFs, measuring sentiment, algorithms, the GameStop event, the rise of the retail investor, how we approach the markets and more. 

Guest - Jamie Wise, CFA, Founder and CEO of Buzz Holdings, & President and CEO at Periscope Capital

howardlindzon.com, investwithbuzz.com, periscopecap.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @investwithbuzz, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/jamie-wise-20133815 

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

This week’s Panic guest, Sam Jones, called in all the way from Oxford to chat with me. Sam is a good friend, unbelievable entrepreneur, and co-founder of the social commerce app “OOOOO.” I was lucky enough to be a small investor in the company. To put it simply, OOOOO is basically “Only Fans” meets commerce – enabling live entertainment commerce. While Sam started “OOOOO” only about a year ago, it has seen impressive growth and success. The work Sam is doing is fascinating and he thoughtfully explains it so well on the podcast. In this episode, Sam digs into ecommerce, OOOOO, his company’s growth and retail share model, China & Pinduoduo, his plans for a documentary, the culture and business of live streaming, and more. 

Guest - Sam Jones, Co-founder and CEO at OOOOO.com 

howardlindzon.com, ooooo.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @ooooobloke, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/sam-jones-0a16533

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

This episode is a continuation of my quest to learn more about the growing trend toward investing in the cannabis industry. A former podcast guest and industry expert CB1 Capital’s Todd Harrison actually helped me connect with the guest of this week’s episode – Jason Wild. Jason is a former pharmacist turned cannabis investor extraordinaire. He is Chairman of the Board at the Canada-listed cannabis company TerrAscend and President of JW Asset Management. Currently, 70% of his over $2 billion under management is invested in cannabis. Jason not only understands the cannabis industry, but also the long history behind it, rooted in racism and bad laws, that has had a major impact in the U.S. In this episode, Jason and I chat all about the cannabis industry, including: its growth, financing, misconceptions, impact from COVID-19, the types of people who do well in this industry, Jason’s work and investments, licensing, changing laws, CBD, education, and criminal justice reform in this space. 

Guest - Jason Wild, Chairman at TerrAscend, and President at JW Asset Management 

howardlindzon.com, terrascend.com, jwfunds.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @JasonGWild, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/jason-wild-b8a7304

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

I had the pleasure of chatting with fintech entrepreneur – and more importantly fellow ASU alum – Jason Gardner on this episode of Panic with Friends. Jason and I were originally introduced through our mutual friend and former Panic guest Ryan Gilbert. While it was fun to reminisce about our time at ASU on this episode, it was even more fun to talk about fintech and Jason’s insights on this booming sector. Jason is at the center of all things fintech. His unicorn company Marqeta, Inc. is “the world’s first open API modern card issuing platform,” which basically means his company makes your payments a whole lot easier. You probably already use Marqeta without even realizing it, with clients such as Uber, Instacart and DoorDash to name a few. In this episode, Jason and I talk about how he got interested in fintech, Marqeta’s origin and success story, open APIs, building capital, neobanks, China, Bitcoin and more.

Guest - Jason Gardner, Founder & CEO at Marqeta 

howardlindzon.com, marqeta.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @jmgards, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/jasonmatthewgardner

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

I’ll jump on any opportunity to bring a fellow Jewish Canadian who shares my love of startups and tech on as a podcast guest. So after sliding into Shopify president Harley Finkelstein’s Twitter DMs and a couple calls later, I got to do just that. Harley’s hustle, spirit and overall success story perfectly embody Shopify’s mission. At only 35 years old, Harley is leading a company that has collectively driven more than $40 billion worth of sales and holds the title of “second largest check-out in America'' after Amazon. But Harley doesn’t want Shopfiy to just be an e-commerce/retail company; he wants it to be the go-to place for entrepreneurs. I hope after listening to this episode you’ll also understand Shopify and why I love it so much. In this episode, Harley and I chat about Shopify’s journey and success, his career path, law school, turning passion projects into the next big thing, scalability, the evolution of e-commerce and retail, entrepreneurship and more. 

Guest - Harley Finkelstein, President at Shopify 

howardlindzon.com, shopify.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @harleyf, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/harleyf 

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

Joanne Wilson is a powerhouse. She’s a prolific investor, mom and wife and a champion of female entrepreneurs – not to mention a tough cookie who knows New York better than anyone I know. When she’s not crushing it in the investing world, you can find this self-described “insatiable foodie” cooking over on her Instagram. I met Joanne about 14 years ago when she and her husband/previous Panic guest Fred Wilson invested in my company at the time WallStrip. Joanne’s investing portfolio has grown since investing in me back in the day to include more than 130 companies. It was a blast to have someone as smart, quick and entertaining as her on the podcast. In this episode, Joanne and I chat about angel investing, New York, tech, real estate, the restaurant industry, entrepreneurship and more. 

Guest - Joanne Wilson, Angel Investor at Gotham Gal 

howardlindzon.com, gothamgal.com 

soundcloud.com/positivelygothamgal 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @thegothamgal, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/joanne-wilson-b0886110 

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

I’ve listened to a lot of impressive people on this podcast, but Zach Weinberg truly blew me away. Zach’s made some incredibly smart investing moves in his life, and he’s only 34 years old. He is a grade-A hustler, habitual entrepreneur and prolific angel investor. Zach and his business partner Nat Turner sold their second start-up venture, an advertising technology company called Invite Media, to Google for $81 million in 2010. After taking a turn toward a foray in the healthcare sector, they sold data and software company Flatiron Health to Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche for $2 billion in 2018. Flatiron Health, founded in 2012, makes software that pools patient data from electronic health rec­ords for cancer treatment centers. Zach was the company’s co-founder, president and COO. He oversaw research, product, engineering and recruiting initiatives. He’s currently invested in over 30 tech startups throughout the U.S. In this episode, Zach and I chat about his backstory, healthcare, biotech research, connecting with founders, Google, Shopify, education and more. 

Guest - Zach Weinberg, General Partner at Operator Partners, Co-Founder at Flatiron Helath, Angel investor 

howardlindzon.com, operatorpartners.com, angel.co/zachweinberg 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @zachweinberg, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/zachweinberg 

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

In this episode, I chatted with the former CEO of what I deem as one of the most important real estate companies in the world – GoDaddy. That’s right, I’m talking about digital real estate. And who better to talk about this with than former GoDaddy CEO Scott Wagner. Wagner was President and COO of the company for over 4 years before serving as CEO from 2018-2019. With his years of experience in the domain industry comes a font of knowledge and insights he was kind enough to share with us on the Panic podcast. In this episode, Scott and I talk about his career path, the domain industry, the state of the markets, content syndication, ecommerce, digital real estate, SPACs, Scottsdale National, branding and more. 

Guest - Scott Wagner, Advisor and Investor, Former CEO GoDaddy 

howardlindzon.com, GoDaddy.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @ScottWWagner, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/wagns

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

I always love getting to interview people who typically ask the questions. And this episode with guest Ted Merz is no exception. Ted has spent 30 years at Bloomberg, first as a journalist and later overseeing application and product building. Now, he works as their Global Head of News Product. Ted was there at the early days of Bloomberg when financial journalism was at its infancy. It was fascinating getting his perspective on this sector and how it has changed and grown over the years. In this episode, Ted and I talked about how he landed his first role at Bloomberg, the biggest story he’s covered, financial journalism, the value of content, integrating Twitter into Bloomberg, data and more. 

Guest - Ted Merz, Global Head of News product at Bloomberg 

howardlindzon.com, bloomberg.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @TedMerz, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/ted-merz-cfa-b711257 

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

If our last guest Tiffany Zhong was the Gen Z whisper, then Douglas Boneparth might just be the Millennial version. And he has the titles to prove it, including the newly named millennial voice of CNBC’s Digital Financial Advisor Council. After spending well over a decade in the financial planning industry, Douglas noticed a gap – a Buzzfeed reading, avocado toast eating, Slack using gap. Millennials weren’t getting the same level of thoughtful time and advice as other older players in finance. Douglas stopped chasing after old money and started finding young people to invest in. He is the founder and president of Bone Fide Wealth, a Manhattan-based wealth management firm specializing in high achieving Millennials, young professionals and entrepreneurs. They currently advise more than $80 million in assets. Douglas is a funny, charismatic, driven and smart guy (even for a Millenial). In this episode, Douglas and I talk about high earning millennials, financial education, when he got interested in the financial world of business, his comedic perspective on his professional and personal life, what a day in the life of a financial planner looks like, his plans for the future, marketing, SEO and more. Enjoy! 

Guest - Douglas A. Boneparth, President at Bone Fide Wealth, LLC 

howardlindzon.com, bonefidewealth.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @dougboneparth, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/douglasboneparth 

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