Finding Genius Series

About Finding Genius Series

The Finding Genius Series focuses on expanding Kunal Mehta’s Book: Finding Genius. Here you will find interviews with Kunal and distinct contributors to venture capital. You will hear their perspective on the future of industries that they are investing in. Additionally, you will hear from CEOs, politicians, and other highly sophisticated individuals from the industry. To keep up to date, subscribe to Kunal’s Substack Channel.

Publisher

Kunal Mehta

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

23 Jun 2021

Latest episode

12 Oct 2021

Latest episodes

14 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2021

   Delian Asparouhov: Varda Industries

   Host [Host Name] interviews Delian Asparouhov, co-founder of Varda Industries, about building factories in space for novel zero-gravity manufacturing.

2. 

   12 Oct 2021

   Francis Suarez: Mayor of Miami

   Kunal Mehta interviews Mayor Francis Suarez about Miami's rise as a tech hub and his decade-long strategy for integrating and supporting innovation.

3. 

   12 Oct 2021

   David McDonough: Commonstock

   David McDonough, founder and CEO of Commonstock, discusses the origin and future of his investor coordination platform in this interview.

4. 

   12 Oct 2021

   Allon Bloch: K Health

   Host Farhad Manjoo interviews Allon Bloch, CEO of K Health, about revolutionizing primary care through data-driven, on-demand virtual doctor visits.

5. 

   12 Oct 2021

   Florian Otto: Cedar

   Kunal Sharma interviews Florian Otto, founder and CEO of Cedar, about building a healthcare technology company and lessons learned from ZocDoc and the U.S. Healthcare System.

6. 

   8 Aug 2021

   Kelvin Beachum, Arizona Cardinals Offensive Lineman, Investor in Whoop, Flexport

   Arizona Cardinals Offensive Lineman and investor Kelvin Beachum shares insights on identifying genius in founders and athletes, offering sports-tech strategies for direct player engagement.

7. 

   8 Aug 2021

   Laura Chau: Partner at Canaan

   Host Kunal Modi interviews Laura Chau, Partner at Canaan, about her venture capital journey, building communities with low acquisition costs, and emerging interests like the metaverse.

8. 

   8 Aug 2021

   Shiv Gaglani; Osmosis

   Host Kunal Mehta interviews Shiv Gaglani, founder of Osmosis, about revolutionizing healthcare education through online learning and strategic partnerships.

9. 

   26 Jun 2021

   Yury Yakubchyk of Sprout on Autism Therapy and their Series A with General Catal

   Host Elise Ballard interviews Yury Yakubchyk of Sprout Therapy about making autism care accessible and their Series A funding.

10. 

    26 Jun 2021

    Nancy Brown, Oak HCFT

    Investor Nancy Brown of Oak HC/FT discusses U.S. healthcare trends and investment opportunities for founders and VCs in this interview.

11. 

    26 Jun 2021

    Misha Esipov, CEO & Co-Founder of Nova Credit

    For more videos such as this one, follow along on Substack (https://findinggenius.substack.com/ (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbDRqdnV3WlROTHRMZ0pvNkJ6VmhBY3FJNkhLUXxBQ3Jtc0ttbnFuOWsxaUtCR3luT2VNZjBXUWV0YVMtb2tGNktNNnhqWFBaamZVcW1HdDVaUGpWaVBfTV95VXNSS3Z2T1ZzNlFTMkJWMXhFV2w2R2Jla3BET2tQWkIySjZVVjZFa2RMOGd6dndDYVpmNXZnRGxOOA&q=https%3A%2F%2Ffindinggenius.substack.com%2F)) This interview was sponsored by Trinet and Anchin. For accounting, tax, and advisory services including R&D Tax Credits, please reach out to chris.noble@anchin.com. Finding Genius with Misha Esipov, co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit (https://www.novacredit.com/ (https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHVmbFgtOHFjenlOMVhoVGo2RmNyQXFLbFQ2UXxBQ3Jtc0tsZXRPemI0WjFocDZEUFF3Q3Z5aDFJbVJzb1REMEJsZlZ6bUtHNEFyelNsLTFoRG5jYXNqaUc2RkNWMkZXOVdWWHlMbG83VkYxdEJkSkhVVU5IUTFjcVAyeVdfemtkT0pHREFQeW9iN2dLTS1LS0M3bw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.novacredit.com%2F)). Nova Credit was founded 5-years ago to help immigrants integrate into the U.S. economy by democratizing access to credit. Nova Credit raised a $50m Series B in early 2020 led by Ilya Fushman at Kleiner Perkins with participation from General Catalyst, Canapi Ventures, Index Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, and Alex Rodriguez. Per Misha, Immigration today drives 50-60% of U.S. Population growth, and every year more people move to the United States than those turning 18 in the United States becoming eligible for financial services for the first time. Over 50 million immigrants in the United States have experienced a similar challenge when they first come to the U.S. and apply for an auto loan, apartment lease, financial loan, or a financial product that requires a credit history. U.S. credit bureaus typically don't recognize immigrants and credit history needs to be built from scratch. As a result, well-educated/high-potential immigrants that are here for the American dream of education, opportunity, or love, are effectively shut out with their financial identity left in their home country. Nova Credit seeks to solve this issue. In our conversation, Misha walks us through the data problem Nova Credit is solving and how it is creating systemic change for immigrants to access a country's services, establishing the standards of data through a Credit Passport (R), and building partnerships with U.S. Financial institutions and international credit agencies. In this conversation, Misha discusses growth-at-all-costs often prescribed by VCs and the worst advice he was given from a venture capitalist who compelled them to grow quickly and find their hockey stick. Misha discusses the anxiety this created for their team early on when the company was dealing with a marketplace that had highly regulated financial institutions on one side and slow-moving credit agencies on the other. On top of other advice shared in this session, Misha stresses to early founders to understand their business and understand that hockey sticks are not one size fits all.

12. 

    26 Jun 2021

    Stephen Sikes Public

    Stephen Sikes is Public.com’s, Chief Operating Officer. He oversees the investing, operations, legal, compliance, and risk functions of Public Holdings, Inc, focusing on providing an intuitive and responsible investing experience for Public.com’s community. He was previously VP and Businsess Lead of SoFi Invest, SoFi’s core investing product. As part of the founding team for SoFi Invest, he drove the long-term strategy and business plan; built and launched five ETFs; launched SoFi Crypto; and grew the customer base to hundreds of thousands of accounts. Previously, Sikes was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company and served as an officer in the U.S. Army.

13. 

    26 Jun 2021

    Packy McCormick of Not Boring

    Packy McCormick is the founder of Not Boring, a newsletter that has attracted over 30,000 subscribers for its weekly deep-dives into small and large tech companies. Packy discusses the newsletter + influencer economy, syndicating investments through Angellist, and the companies he is most excited about.

14. 

    23 Jun 2021

    VC Keith Rabois shares insights from early investments in Airbnb, Affirm, and St

    Highlight quote from this episode: “You either sell tickets or you don’t. You create a trailer and people either buy tickets or they don’t. If they don’t, go and create a better trailer, change the price of a ticket, or re-think the entire concept of the movie. The concept of a minimum viable product (MVP) is stupid. More people need to emulate Apple. You ship a finished product. As Jack at Square says often, ‘the customers are not Guinea pigs’. People who treat customers like Guinea Pigs have incredibly poor net promoter scores.” More Finding Genius: https://findinggenius.substack.com/subscribe?utm_source=menu&simple=true&next=https%3A%2F%2Ffindinggenius.substack.com%2F

Who has been a guest on Finding Genius Series

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Delian Asparouhov
• Francis Suarez
• David McDonough
• Allon Bloch
• Florian Otto

Contact Finding Genius Series

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.