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Billion Dollar Moves™ with Sarah Chen-Spellings

Season 2

June 27, 2024

Beyond ChatGPT: AI Insights and Impact w/ OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Trill Impact

This week’s episode is fresh out of the oven! The Family Office Alliance Stockholm Symposium took place about a week ago. In one of the panels titled "Purposeful Investing in AI," Sarah Chen-Spellings moderated a discussion o...
June 20, 2024

[Replay] LP view: The Art & Science of Building in Venture w/ Lisa Edgar, Top Tier Capital

What distinguishes the standout figures in the world of venture capital from those who aren’t? "𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞." Currently serving as the Partner Emeritus at Top Tier Capital ...
Guest: Lisa Edgar
June 13, 2024

From Idea to Impact: Creating a $20 Million Fund During Crisis w/ Mike Moradi, Cortado Ventures

𝐎𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐚-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐝𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 $𝟐𝟎𝐌 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 - how did this happen? This week’s episode features Mike Moradi, one of the GPs of Cortado Ventures, also the co-founder and also a portfolio company CEO, the CE...
Guest: Mike Moradi
June 6, 2024

Funding Founders Forward: Fueling Women-Led Innovation

Let’s make things tangible - how do we challenge the status quo with actions? Beyond The Billion returned to Austin earlier this year in partnership with Dell Technologies, Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, Dell For Startups...
May 30, 2024

Unlocking $500Bn Market Opportunity: Cybersecurity w/ Sidra Ahmed Lefort, Munich Re Ventures

Munich Re Ventures is the venture capital group of Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance company and a leading global provider of primary insurance and insurance related resolutions. Now Munich Re Ventures is a billion p...
May 23, 2024

Vimeo to Tubi: Anjali Sud Leveraging Disruption to Build Billion-Dollar Companies

Tubi is the most-watched free TV and movie streaming service in the U.S. to date, with the world's largest content library of over 200,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of originals, and nearly 250 Fox channels...
Guest: Anjali Sud
May 16, 2024

The Power of Data Science to Revolutionize Impact w/ Danil Mikhailov, DataDotOrg

In the age of AI and rapid technological advances, what does it mean to leverage data for good? And in the face of the digital divide, what can we as investors do to address it? With over 20 years of experience in founding mu...
May 9, 2024

Bite: Evolving as a CEO That Your Company Needs with Kim Yao, CloudEats

“As long as you're open to what's next, as long as you're open to the unknown, then there's an opportunity for you to improve yourself.” - Kimberly Yao, Co-Founder & CEO of CloudEats. From selling booze online and working in ...
Guest: Kim Yao
May 2, 2024

CEO Series: Melanie Perkins, Co-founder & CEO of Canva

As of January 2024, Canva’s design platform attracted around 170 million monthly global users from 190 countries. BUT it was not too long ago that now 36-year-old Canva founder Melanie Perkins was rejected by 100 VCs. Just li...
April 25, 2024

CEO Series: Whitney Wolfe Herd, Co-Founder of Bumble

You may have heard the news: as of January 2nd, 2024, Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd has stepped down as chief executive after nearly a decade leading the dating app company. Despite challenges ahead - a more conservative ...
April 18, 2024

LP Panel: Deployment in Private Equity w/ Tomi Viia, OP Financial Group & Marko Hara, Decile Capital

Revisiting a clip from the LP Summit co-hosted by Beyond the Billion and Arctic15 in Helsinki in 2023, we have curated this brief but insightful episode for GPs, LPs, or even founders. This week’s guests are two European LP v...
Guests: Tomi Viia , Marko Hara
April 11, 2024

Bite: Delivering Alpha with Kindness, The Red Helicopter Way w/ James Rhee

"Goodwill should mean a whole lot more than accounting concept, is earned and cannot be bought; but if done correctly, can be worth a whole lot." As we step into Q2, there's no better time to pause, reflect, and realign our g...
Guest: James Rhee
April 4, 2024

Faith, Finance, Technology w/ Fara Abdullah, Bitsmedia

Muslims are projected to constitute more than 25% of the world's total population this year. To many in the industry, this isn't just a statistic; it represents a vast array of opportunities for the markets. This week, we had...
Guest: Fara Abdullah
March 28, 2024

LP View: Breaking Bias to Drive Returns w/ Joanna Kuang, Illumen Capital

“We believe an inclusive and optimal asset management industry will be the cornerstone of an equal and equitable future.” - Illumen Capital While organizations explore ways to embody diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), au...
Guest: Joanna Kuang
March 21, 2024

Building Billion Dollar Business with Strategic Marketing w/ Ross Simmonds, Foundation Marketing

Berkshire Hathaway and the famed investor Warren Buffett himself are often the topic of discussion when it comes to achieving success in the world of venture. Nevertheless, despite the almost unassuming marketing strategies c...
Guest: Ross Simmonds
March 14, 2024

Unveiling Unicorn Pathways: How to Become a Unicorn w/ Leah Barto, Endeavor Global

In venture capital, pattern recognition is a valuable skill. Investors often analyze various pieces of a puzzle, employing pattern recognition to assess whether a company might be on the path to success. This week’s Billion D...
Guest: Leah Barto
March 7, 2024

Unlocking Venture Capital through Private Wealth w/ Samir Kaji, Allocate

This week's guest is Samir Kaji, a prolific writer and host of Venture Unlocked, a podcast and blog that dives into the inner workings of venture capital, and the CEO and co-founder of Allocate. With over 20 years of experien...
Guest: Samir Kaji
Feb. 29, 2024

Behind the IPO: ACV Auctions & ASV w/ Somak Chattopadhyay & Vikas Mehta

This week we had not one but two esteemed guests - a funder and his founder of choice to talk through everything from building trust and partnership to getting to that IPO. Featuring Somak Chattopadhyay , founder of Armory Sq...
Feb. 22, 2024

[REPLAY] Investing with Penny Pritzker & Building a Robust Venture & Growth Practice w/ Momei Qu, PSP Partners

“ if you can show strong growth in this environment, that means you’re getting corporate budgets at a time when corporate budgets are tightening.” As we continue to emerge from the belt-tightening era in investment and ventur...
Guest: Momei Qu
Feb. 15, 2024

Bite: Investing in Diversity with Erin Harkless Moore, Pivotal Ventures

Investing in women is the smartest thing you could do right now. Erin Harkless Moore, Senior Director of Investments at Pivotal Ventures, a company founded by Melinda French Gates to promote social equity in the realm of inve...
Feb. 8, 2024

Surfacing Unicorns in Emerging Markets w/ Allen Taylor, Endeavor Catalyst

This week's episode features Allen Taylor, managing partner at Endeavor Catalyst, one of the earliest supporters at the Billion Dollar Fund for Women (now Beyong The Billion). Allen also sits on the global leadership team at ...
Guest: Allen Taylor
Feb. 1, 2024

Rise with Resilience: Becoming a Rare Unicorn Iman Abuzeid, Incredible Health

"It's probably not a good idea to overlook female CEOs or Black CEOs. Because they're driving an enormous amount of value in business. And you overlook it at your own expense." - Iman Abuzeid, Co-founder & CEO of Incredible H...
Guest: Iman Abuzeid
Jan. 25, 2024

Breaking Barriers: Why “Taboo” Brands Win with Shama Amalean Skinner (Former COO, Thinx Inc.)

From a market that was almost nonexistent in 2015, hitting double digits with a ~25% CAGR by 2018, Femtech and women's health industry have been long underestimated until the rise of Thinx and similar brands revolutionized th...
Jan. 18, 2024

LP Special: How Emerging Managers can win in 2024

The global economic uncertainty and a shift in focus towards sustainable growth are widely expected to impact the fundraising prospects for new vehicles, especially those focused on emerging markets or launched by first-time ...