Smart Humans with Slava Rubin

Slava and Anthony talk about the impact of the election on private markets and the public stock market. They go through different private markets, including real estate, crypto, pre-IPO venture, art and collectibles, and talk about how each candidate can impact the economy and your investments.

Atish Davda is the co-founder and CEO of EquityZen, a leading marketplace for private company stock. For a decade, he has been responsible for running the firm, designing the organization, managing the leadership team, and guiding product development. He has spent 15+ years in fintech and asset management as an engineer, quant, and investor. He is an established leader in identifying novel markets, capturing opportunity with inventive technology applications, and running highly capital efficient operations. He has been a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and contributor on Forbes, CNBC, and Bloomberg. Atish holds a Bachelors of Economics and Finance from The Wharton School and a Bachelors of Computer Science and Engineering from University of Pennsylvania.

Auren Hoffman is CEO of SafeGraph. SafeGraph is a geospatial data company focused on understanding physical places. He is also GP of Flex Capital. He is the former CEO and cofounder of LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP) -- the largest middleware provider in marketing technology. He is the founder of the Dialog Retreat and investor in over 160 active technology companies. Auren holds a B.S.E. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley. Twitter: @auren

Mo Al Adham is the founder and CEO of Frec, the investment platform bringing sophisticated investing products like direct indexing to consumers, bypassing traditional wealth advisors. Prior to Frec, Mo was the first advisor at Instacart, joining the advisory board in early 2013. Mo was also the founder of Twitvid in 2008, the first video platform for social networks like Twitter. Mo joined Twitter in 2016 and spent 5 years in various product leadership roles. Mo has a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Ben Reinberg is the Founder & Chief Executive officer of Alliance Consolidated Group of Companies, LLC, which specializes in medical office investing. He is a prominent figure in commercial real estate acquisition and investment and a widely recognized expert in the development and structuring of commercial real estate transactions. Ben brings immense value to the dealing process in his ability to build trust quickly, raise equity efficiently, solve problems, and bridge the gap between buyers and sellers.

Sim Desai is the Founder and CEO of Hiive, the first true marketplace for private company stock. Before founding Hiive, Sim spent over a decade at Setter Capital, where he founded and led the firm’s venture capital secondaries team since 2015. He grew this business from a new entrant to VC/unicorn trading to its current position as a major global hub. Sim holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology from UBC and a JD/MBA from the University of Toronto.

Max Levchin is the founder and CEO of Affirm, the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of Glow, a data-driven fertility company. Both companies were created and launched from his San Francisco based innovation lab, HVF (Hard, Valuable, Fun). Max was one of the original co-founders of PayPal where he served as the Chief Technology Officer until its acquisition by eBay in 2002. In 2002, he was named to the Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world as well as Innovator of the Year.

Prior to HVF, Max founded and was CEO of Slide, a personal media-sharing service, which was acquired by Google in 2010. Max also helped create Yelp Inc., a consumer internet company, where he served as Chairman of its Board of Directors from its founding in 2005 until July 2015. He served on the board for Yahoo! Inc., an internet company, from 2012 until 2015. 

Max was born in Kyiv, Ukraine before moving to the United States and settling in Chicago in 1991. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he founded and led four other technology startups. Max is a serial entrepreneur, computer scientist, philanthropist and active investor in more than 100 startups.

Over a 25-year entrepreneurial career that spans IP communications, wireless telecom, and finance, Brian Dally has pushed the boundaries of how disruptive Internet technologies can be applied to solve large-scale consumer problems and distribute value to all.

As the co-founder and CEO of Groundfloor, a wealth tech platform that allows everyone to build wealth through real estate, Brian has helped make private capital markets radically more accessible to new participants. Under his leadership, Groundfloor became the first company qualified by the SEC to offer direct real estate debt investments via Regulation A to non-accredited investors and accredited investors alike. In 2020, Groundfloor made its debut on Inc. Magazine’s prestigious list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America. It’s now been on the Inc 5000 list four years in a row. Most recently, Groundfloor was named to the 2024 Forbes Fintech 50 as one of the most important innovators changing the way people save, spend, and invest. Brian has also been recognized for his entrepreneurial leadership by many organizations.

Nelson Chu is an experienced serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Percent, the modern credit marketplace. After witnessing the inefficiencies in the private credit markets, Nelson was inspired to transform this industry for the better and founded Percent in 2018. He and his team have built an end-to-end credit platform unlike any other, empowering borrowers, underwriters, and investors to transact with confidence through governance, asset transparency, and market standardization. Nelson has been recognized by Private Debt Investor as a Rising Star in their annual list of the top 40 individuals shaping the future of private credit.

Ankur Nagpal is the founder of Carry and previously founded Teachable, which he scaled to $60M+ in ARR. Ankur also runs a venture fund, Vibe Capital and has invested in 100+ startups.