Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon

Spoiler Alert: There’s no panic this episode. Why? Because I had Brett Wilson on, someone who doesn’t panic, but rather finds solutions and different ways of doing things. I first met Brett back in 2007 and quickly became a seed investor in his company, TubeMogul. He’s a special guest, and not just because he’s made me some money. Brett is an amazing investor, entrepreneur, board member and thought leader. No one has been at the center of video (specifically digital) quite like Brett. Since selling TubeMogul to Adobe and leading advertising efforts there for a bit, Brett is now an angel investor, partner at Swift Ventures, and board member at companies such as Tubi, WeTravel and, more recently, Arize AI. In this episode, Brett and I had a great discussion about being at the center of the video bomb, TikTok, Netflix, Tubi, life as a CEO and entrepreneur, company pivots, TubeMogul’s journey, resurfacing trends, AI and what excites him as an investor as of late. We talked about a lot of great companies, trends, industries and the types of people who make them great. Hope you all enjoy it! 

Guest - Brett Wilson, Entrepreneur, Founder of TubeMogul 

howardlindzon.com, swift.vc, tubemogul.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @bjwilson34, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/bjwilson 

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

I had the pleasure of catching up with my good friend Lewis Johnson on this episode of Panic. Lewis has a strong background, with titles like UPenn Wharton MBA grad, money manager, stock picker, researcher and entrepreneur. Lewis’ company, Fundamental Global, is an alternative asset management firm which advises on over $2 billion of assets through its affiliates and deals in research, portfolio diversification and investment experience. If you’re looking for advice about asset management – or just someone to go fishing with – he’s your guy. In this episode, Lewis and I had a wide-ranging conversation, discussing managing alternative assets, the value of research and data, his work at Fundamental Global and Capital Wealth Advisors, the markets, the industrialization of China, gold, the Next Big Thing, supply and demand, cycles, crypto, decentralization, SPACs, education, silver linings in COVID-19 and more. It was clearly a smörgåsbord of a discussion. Enjoy! 

Guest - Lewis Johnson, Co-Founder & President at Fundamental Global Investors and Co-CIO at Capital Wealth Advisors 

howardlindzon.com, capitalwealthadvisors.com 

blog.capitalwealthadvisors.com/trends-tail-risks 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @TrendsTailRisks, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/lewismjohnson 

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

I had the joy of having not one, but TWO guests on for this episode of Panic. We brought on Invesco’s John Hoffman and the Nasdaq’s Sean Wasserman to talk about the ETF of all ETFs – QQQ. Invesco, a global asset management firm, is the father of the QQQ ETF, which launched with the Nasdaq over 20 years ago. John says the company now manages just north of $1.2 trillion (no big deal). Now, Invesco and Nasdaq are expanding their partnership to launch the Invesco QQQ Innovation Suite. This will offer investor access to the NASDAQ-100 and NASDAQ Next Gen 100 portfolios. In other words, the QQQ just outdid itself. I won’t go into too much detail because Sean and John are the real experts in this space. But I will say after listening to this episode, you will feel like an ETF and QQQ expert. In this episode, the three of us have a wide-ranging discussion about all things QQQ, ETFs, Invesco and Nasdaq’s new partnership product, investor relationships, managing & building portfolios, the democratization of investing, network effects, emerging tech companies, the next generation of young investors and more. 

Guests - Sean Wasserman, CFA, VP & Global Head of Index & Advisor Solutions at Nasdaq, And John Hoffman, Head of Americas - ETFs & Indexed Strategies at Invesco Ltd. 

howardlindzon.com, nasdaq.com, invesco.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @InvescoUS, @Nasdaq, @SeanNDAQ, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/seanwasserman

linkedin.com/in/john-hoffman-9347513

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

Troy Prince is a native New Yorker, first generation Carribean immigrant, world traveller, veteran trader and founder of the incredible nonprofit Wall Street Bound. No words can express how much I admire and respect the work Troy does. His nonprofit, Wall Street Bound, teaches the technical “hard” skills of finance and the “soft” skills of corporate culture to help get inner city youth into front office intern positions on Wall Street. In short, Troy is helping connect marginalized and underrepresented groups to capital markets. In this episode, Troy and I discuss all things Wall Street Bound: the 15 year journey of starting the company; what services, programs and curriculum is provided; their progress; where Troy sees the company in the next five years; their success and more. We also talk more holistically about onboarding the next generation of investors, leveling the playfield and the value of social capital. I hope you learn something new after listening to this episode. 

Guest - Troy Prince, CAIA, Founder at Wall Street Bound and Prometheus Capital Managers LLC

howardlindzon.com, wallstreetbound.org, chipsforcharity.stocktwits.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @wallst_bound, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/troyaprincecaia

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

This episode I interview Woodrow Levin, or Woody as I like to call him. He’s a great entrepreneur, good friend and founder and CEO of Extend. His company, which was founded a little over a year ago, builds and handles extended warranties on their products in an effort to remove roadblocks for smaller merchants. Extend already works with companies like Peloton, iRobot and some 150 others. Not to mention, Woody even invested in our first fund for Social Leverage. I’m grateful for his friendship and business partnership. Woody has had the entrepreneurial bug for a while and has even had previous roles such as Vice President of Growth at DocuSign. He is also currently a board member at DraftKings (shout out to our previous Panic guest Jason Robins). In this episode, Woody and I discuss what it's like growing a company, crypto, DraftKings, Extend, dealing with failure, Shopify, markets, AppleCare and more. Enjoy! 

Guest - Woodrow Levin, Founder & CEO at Extend 

howardlindzon.com, extend.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @WoodyLevin, @HelloExtend, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/woodrowlevin 

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

Savneet Singh is not only a great friend, but he’s also one of the most driven workers I’ve ever met, who offers such an interesting perspective on life, entrepreneurship and business. Overall, he’s just incredible at what he does. Savneet and I met through our mutual friend, Sonny Singh, and I’ve been a fan of his for a while now. Savneet is the CEO of PARTech, a provider of point of sale software to the retail and hospitality industry. I was so excited to have a CEO like Savneet on because his company is actually a publicly traded company, trading under $PAR on the NYSE. Savneet has accomplished quite a lot before even starting at PARTech. His investments range from real estate to Uber to cryptocurrencies to websites. Not to mention, he’s also a partner with Ali Hamed, a past guest on Panic, at the VC firm CoVenture. Savneet has so much vision around the software space, some of which he shares with me on the podcast. In this episode, Savneet and I also discuss his admiration of Warren Buffett, public companies, fintech, PARTech’s origin story, Saas businesses, COVID-19 impact on restaurants, SPACs, ecommerce, bitcoin and more. 

Guest - Savneet Singh, President and CEO at PAR Technology Corp

howardlindzon.com, partech.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @SavneetS, @PAR_Tech, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/savneetsingh 

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

Current CEO Stuart Sopp is doing some incredibly innovative things over at his company. So, I wanted to check back in with him since our last chat back in March to see if he can offer any new insights. Current is a digital, consumer-friendly banking company targeting groups of people typically overlooked at larger banks, including Millennials and Gen Z. And while big banks focus on lending and deposits, Current focuses on spending. Before starting Current, Stuart made a name for himself developing financial systems as a senior trader for banks like Morgan Stanley, Citi and Deutsche Bank. Now, Stuart’s company is basically the antithesis to these big banks. Current has seen incredible growth this year — surpassing over 1 million active users at the height of the pandemic. In this episode, Stuart and I discuss stocks, cryptocurrency, big banks, what neobanks like Current are and where they’re heading, fintech, his competitors, the wealth gap, stimulus and more. Enjoy! 

Guest - Stuart Sopp, Founder and CEO of Current Bank

howardlindzon.com, current.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @soppstu, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/stuartsopp

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

This was a very exciting episode because not only did I have Stocktwits CEO RIshi Khanna on, but it was also his first podcast ever! We were initially introduced through our mutual friend Dave Moon, and I guess you could say the rest is history. He’s a great guy whom I’ve really enjoyed working with as part of our growing Stocktwits community. Before leading the team over at Stocktwits, Rishi has worn many hats ranging from engineering, product, sales, client service, finance and operations. On this episode, we discussed the markets, data, fintech, working in New York during COVID-19 (and what has surprised him most about the pandemic), how he got his start in fintech, the culture of media, ecommerce and what we can expect from Stocktwits in the future. 

Guest - Rishi Khanna, CEO at Stocktwits

howardlindzon.com, stocktwits.com, chipsforcharity.stocktwits.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @rkhanna, @stocktwits, @knutjensen 

Stocktwits: @rkhanna, @howardlindzon 

linkedin.com/in/rishikhanna

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

Chris Hulls is a good friend with an arsenal of interesting stories and life experiences, and apparently he’s also a TikTok celeb now. I had the pleasure of having the Life360 CEO on for an episode of Panic with Friends. Chris describes Life360 for families as what AAA is for drivers. It’s essentially Find My Friends on steroids (his words, not mine). While Life360 is currently ranked as the eighth most popular social networking app on IOS, it hasn’t ranked so high in the hearts of Gen Z. And in this episode, Chris explains why this was the case. I won’t spoil the whole story, but let’s just say it starts with basically all of Gen Z using TikTok to vocalize their desire to punch Chris in the face and sabotage Life360’s app store reviews. Beyond telling the story of how he got Gen Z’s respect, Chris also talks with me about IPO-ing on the Australian stock exchange, founders, SPACs, Life360’s origin story, COVID-19’s impact on the digital landscape and more. Enjoy! 

Guest - Chris Hulls, Cofounder & CEO at Life360 Inc 

howardlindzon.com, life360.com 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @ChrisHulls, @Life360, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/chrishulls 

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

Not many of my podcast guests can say they got (indirectly) yelled at by Steve Jobs, but luckily my guest on this episode, Steven Rosenblatt, can. Steven is a great friend, incredible venture capitalist and NYC tech legend. He built the company Quatro Wireless during the financial crisis in 2010, which pioneered WAP long before Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. By WAP of course I mean wireless application protocol. Apple eventually bought it and from there Steven even launched a product under Steve Job’s supervision. Steven has more than 20 years of experience scaling startups, building technology companies and supporting founders. Today, he is the co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Oceans. In this episode, Steven and I had a fun discussion about his new firm, how he looks in a black turtleneck, the culture of Apple, meeting founders, scaling businesses, his time as President of Foursquare, what it's like to transform a consumer app to an enterprise company, why he’s bullish on new york and more. He also gracefully snuck in a little humblebrag, but you’ll have to wait until the end of the episode to figure out who it is! 

Guest - Steven Rosenblatt, Co-Founder & General Partner at Oceans 

howardlindzon.com, oceans.ventures 

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @stevenjr76, @oceanventures, @knutjensen 

linkedin.com/in/stevenrosenblatt 

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