SALT Talks

Paula Schneider is the president and CEO of Susan G. Komen®. She is responsible for the strategic direction and day-to-day operation of Komen’s research, community health, public policy advocacy and global programs. Schneider brings a personal perspective to Komen’s mission as a breast cancer survivor whose mother died of metastatic breast cancer. 

Schneider is widely regarded as an expert in organizational management and finance, serving as president and CEO of American Apparel and Delta Galil Premium Brands and as president at Warnaco Swimwear Group. She served in strategic advisory roles at the private equity firm, The Gores Group. 

A featured speaker at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in 2016, Schneider also was named one of Los Angeles Business Journal’s 500 Most Influential People for 2016 and garnered the National Association of Women’s Business Owners Inspiration Award in 2010. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Lo is the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital, which he incubated and spun out from GV, based on a strategy to increase access to early-stage deal flow. Jihan is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Bracket Capital. He began his investing career in London on Goldman Sachs’ esteemed Global Macro Proprietary Trading Desk, the first analyst in the firm’s history to be asked to join.

Plexo Capital is a venture fund formed inside GV (formerly Google Ventures). The fund is based on GV's strategy to increase access to differentiated deal flows and seeks to make investments into women and minority seed-stage VCs.

Bracket Capital is an alpha-driven global investment manager focused on later-stage, technology-enabled companies with asymmetric risk-reward profiles. We leverage decades of experience at Investment Banks and Hedge Funds investing in semi-liquid assets to optimize net returns and cash distributions for investors.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Wes Moore is the CEO of Robin Hood, a leading foundation in the fight against poverty. He is also the author of the bestselling books “The Work,” “Discovering Wes Moore,” and “This Way Home.”

Venture philanthropy involves using business-oriented data to identify the best solutions to poverty around the country. The capital investments in communities are delivered in partnership with on-the-ground collaboration with the affected community members. It's important that the investments made are not seen as charity, but as tools for change. This also requires understanding why poverty exists. Poverty does not happen in a vacuum but is structurally predictable because of the public policy we implement. "We have policies that are very much still in place that are putting people and keeping people in poverty; Where we have a legacy of public policy… that's making poverty incredibly predictable."

Poverty affects every aspect of a community and its members. The pandemic presented just another example of how the effects of COVID-19 were felt disproportionately in poor communities and communities of color. "Poverty has this way of showing itself in every way. It's the water you're drinking, the air you're breathing, the food you have access to, the schools your children attend, transportation assets you have or don't, the way you're policed."

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Jake Wood is the founder and CEO of Team Rubicon, a non-profit organization that utilizes the skills of military veterans to deploy disaster response teams to a variety of different humanitarian crises. 

The US military provides some of the most advanced skill training in the world to its service members. Too often when these veterans leave the military, there are no smart ways to apply those skills. Team Rubicon has recruited over 750K veterans and responded to over 750 communities in crisis. Disaster zones provide a unique opportunity for veterans to use those skills for good around the world. "January 2010, the Haiti earthquake hit. It was the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. Seeing all the chaos and destruction, it really looked familiar to me. I’d just gotten done with two really hard combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan."

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

This is the first episode in a three-episode SALT Talks series focused on election security. Michael Chertoff was the Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009 where he led the country in blocking would-be terrorists and transformed FEMA following Hurricane Katrina.

Elections security became a greater focus as the Internet became more integrated with voting systems. One of the most effective safeguards against a mass breach of voting systems is the distributed and decentralized nature of elections. The nature of election concerns has evolved greatly to include potential domestic terrorism and foreign government disinformation. "There was actually very little interference with registration databases or the voting process itself."

The real issues turned out to be after the election, culminating in the violent mob seeking to block congress' certification of the election results. This was due to sustained misinformation propagated by then President Trump, his allies and conservative media outlets. The irresponsibility displayed should and could likely lead to successful legal action. "Frankly, I understand why these companies (like Dominion) are suing. They're basically saying, 'put your money where your mouth is.' There needs to be accountability."

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Juliet Scott-Croxford is the CEO for the media brand Worth, responsible for leading its transformation from a print magazine to a content platform that focuses on 'Worth beyond Wealth.'

Building around a mission that a person's worth is more than a person's financial wealth offers a compelling approach for a media company. All media has been in the process of handling the rapid shift from print to digital. This digital advertising space poses a whole new set of challenges. All of the challenges were made even more complicated by the pandemic that eliminated an important live event revenue vertical. "We flipped into more of a mindset of experimentation rather than being paralyzed by it."

The pandemic necessitated outside-of-the-box thinking that has benefited the company. This includes building out the Women in Worth audience with a subscription model and finding new ways to connect. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Josh and Griffin are two of the biggest influencers on TikTok, a social media network where users share short-form videos, where they have a combined 34+ million followers. Their media and business ventures extend across multiple channels.

Business-minded from a young age, early media success born out of TikTok has opened doors across media and finance. Social media content houses, like the Sway House, are becoming popular and major content hubs for Gen Z. This is launching many careers of young people and showing new ways people can pursue professions outside traditional frameworks. "There are so many other routes than just going to college, 9-to-5 and mortgages… to achieve your dreams."

Success on social media has opened doors to many other opportunities in business. This led to ventures in angel investing that involve networking and learning lessons from entrepreneurs, founders and executives. "I remember trying to buy Bitcoin in 9th grade…and my parents didn't let me."

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Mike Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, a cryptocurrency investment firm. Ari Paul is the co-founder and chief investment officer of BlockTower Capital, an investment firm that manages a portfolio of crypto assets.

In the early stages around 2013, Bitcoin was a speculative asset that appealed mainly to libertarians and those with frustrations surrounding recent economic crises. The passion behind the decentralized finance community was unmatched and served as an early indicator of its eventual rise. Before recognizing Bitcoin as the answer, it was clear that the rapid expansion of the money supply would call for a response. With concerns around inflation, Bitcoin serves as the guard against that. "The bet of a lifetime is going to be betting on currency depreciation… it didn't click for me that Bitcoin could be that asset until 2014."

Until recently, the majority of Bitcoin purchases happened at the retail level. That is partly responsible for its initial volatility. As major financial institutions become more involved and put it on their balance sheets, expect Bitcoin to stabilize and grow in value. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Sa'ad Shah is the co-founder and managing partner of Noetic, a venture capital firm that seeks to invest in emerging and early-stage psychedelic-based wellness, therapeutic and pharmaceutical companies. JR Rahn is the co-founder and co-CEO of MindMed, a leading psychedelic medicine biotech company that discovers, develops and deploys psychedelic-inspired medicines and therapies to address addiction and mental illness.  

Psychedelics in medicine represent an entirely new biotech asset class. Psychedelics still carry with it the stigma of its recreational use in the 60s and 70s, but its application as therapy is intended to help people with mental health and addiction issues. Psychedelic-assisted therapy involves a trained therapist who guides the patient through the experience. "The science has been incredibly compelling. The efficacy rates cannot be ignored."

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Lyn Alden is the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy where she provides investors with research, information, and tools to help them build wealth.

Initially, there were concerns around Bitcoin that made it too risky to feel confident in. Over a few years, concerns over potential competitors and vulnerabilities were addressed, greatly de-risking the asset. To cap a strong 2-3 year run, 2020 presented an ideal environment for Bitcoin to make a big jump. "2020 was the perfect storm for Bitcoin… The macro-environment couldn't be more attractive. We saw broad money supply increase 25% year-over-year."

Bitcoin follows Metcalfe's Law which means that as the number of users increases, the cryptocurrency's value grows exponentially- this is often known as the network effect. In addition, due to the verification process, Bitcoin becomes more secure as the price goes up. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.