Investor Connect Podcast

In this episode, Hall interviews Brooke Waupsh, co-founder of Swoovy, a new and unique online dating app. Brooke has 15 years of experience in the consumer sector and has developed expertise in research and consumer insight. Brooke talks about some of the factors that define the online dating industry, including an overview of several of the major players. Brooke goes on to discuss the market tren...

In this episode, Hall interviews John Fein of Firebrand Ventures, a Midwest-oriented venture fund focused on seed-stage software startups. John is an experienced entrepreneur and founder, who got into startup investing with Techstars in Kansas City.

In this episode, Hall interviews Nathan Scripps of Common Sense Growth, a for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Common Sense Media, which is the largest and leading nonprofit for school-age kids and their families in the country. Nathan honed his investing knowledge through his early experiences with automotive startups. He relates how he came to Common Sense Growth, and how the idea of working i...

In this episode, Hall interviews Andrii Zamovsky of Ambisafe, a blockchain software company specializing in software for financial markets. Ambisafe builds complex infrastructure on the blockchain, and provides end-to-end token sale infrastructure. As Andrii puts it, their "mission is to democratize financial markets, to ensure the maximum financial inclusion and make sure that everyone can use th...

In this episode, Hall interviews Eric Rosenblum of Tsingyuan Ventures, a technology-focused venture fund based in Los Altos, California. Tsingyuan invests in seed to A-round startups in the United States, and is a successor fund to the TEEC Angel Fund. Eric talks about his start investing in China and how they formed their investment thesis. Specifically, they consider investments that are compara...

In this episode, Hall interviews William Chu of SparkLabs FinTech, a global accelerator program focused on helping promising early-stage fintech companies develop and scale in various markets across the globe. After some success in private equity in Hong Kong, William wanted to get more involved in early stage investing. When Korea-based SparkLabs was looking to expand into China and other areas,...

In this episode, Hall interviews Terry Koehler, a golf industry entrepreneur. Terry talks about some of the characteristics of the golf space, and what led him to become an entrepreneur. Terry discusses the stability of the multi-billion dollar golf industry, and how it an industry that works well for the right investor that is knowledgeable and passionate about the sport. Terry explains how the g...

In this episode, Hall interviews Mike Krilivsky of RageOn!, an online store specializing in revolutionary, one-of-a-kind custom printing. RageOn! has developed a patent-pending, all-over-print technology that allows creators, brands, and artists to customize their own merchandise, from T-Shirts to socks to swim trunks. Their app allows users to upload images directly onto their merchandise using t...

In this episode, Hall interviews Kim Folsom of Founders First Capital. Kim is a serial tech entrepreneur for over 20 years, who has founded, grew, and funded six tech companies, exited three, and raised over 30 million in venture. Kim talks about her start investing in the under-served service business space. Kim also discusses the attractiveness of the market from a impact investment standpoint,...

In this episode, Hall interviews Jorge Azpe and Samuel Gutierrez of Schok LLC, manufacturer of retail electronics, including tablets and cell phones. Samuel and Jorge talk about how they got into the mobile device space, and the opportunities they saw there, particularly in the mid-tier of phones. They talk about some of the challenges in the manufacturing space - and what sets them apart in terms...

In this episode, Hall interviews Michael Zavet of Canada-based Hyperion Exchange, a platform for trading tokenized financial instruments using blockchain technology. Michael and Hall discuss the current state of the crypto market in general, and the cryptocurrency market for real estate applications. Michael talks about some of the current blockchain application investments going on in the real es...

In this episode, Hall welcomes Travis Farese of Real AI. Before founding Real AI, Travis had a previous career in oil and gas services with an engineering and business degree. Travis and partners then founded a services company, which they successfully sold right before the downturn in 2015. That, in turn, led him into commercial real estate.

Hall is joined by Ben Bennett, COO of Omnitude. Ben's background has always been in the commercial side of businesses - anything from telesales, field sales, product sales, all the way through to more strategic and development roles in business. He eventually launched his own company, a consultancy, which focused on startups, enabling businesses to understand their value proposition and then then...

Hall is joined by Douglas Raggio of Bias and Blind Spots. Before joining the VC world, Doug's background was mostly consumer products and services. After college he worked for publicity firms. He then went from to high end consumer goods (Bentley, Lamborghini, Vespa). This led to sports marketing, (Nike, Motorola and Direct TV). He started a tech company with two friends which gave him his first r...

Hall is joined by Yash Thukral and Sam Yaffa of TRITON FUNDS LLC. TRITON FUNDS LLC is the largest private student-managed investment fund in the nation. TRITON FUNDS provides students the invaluable opportunity to gain real-world experience investing alongside experienced financial professionals. We invest in high performing teams with revolutionary aspirations to grow their company into industry...

Hall is joined by Jason Cahill of McCune Capital. We kick off this episode learning about Jason's background before he got into early stage investing and what led him there. Jason is an army veteran. He spent seven years of active duty from 1997 to 2004. Thematically as an investor, Jason looks at inefficient markets, but really inefficiency followed him throughout his career in the military. He f...

Hall is joined by Matthew Jordan of Limitless Crypto Investments. Before entering the crypto space, Matthews background was developing healthcare solutions for doctors and patients. He purchased his first Bitcoin in 2013 unsure of the technology and followed the same route as many others. He bought his first bitcoin in 2015. Matthew wasn't really sure about the tech, and looked at in terms of kind...

In the second part of a three-part interview, Hall is joined by William Santana Li of Knightscope. Bill is a seasoned entrepreneur, intrapreneur and former corporate executive at Ford Motor Company. He was founder and COO of GreenLeaf, which became the world's 2nd largest automotive recycler (now part of NASDAQ: LKQ) and has a BSEE from Carnegie Mellon University and MBA from University of Detroit...

In the first episode in a three-part series, Hall is joined by William Santana Li of Knightscope. We kick off the episode learning about Bill's past before joining Knightscope. Bill is a seasoned entrepreneur, intrapreneur and former corporate executive at Ford Motor Company. He was founder and COO of GreenLeaf, which became the world's 2nd largest automotive recycler (now part of NASDAQ: LKQ) and...

In this episode, we are joined by Aaron Michaels of 1984 Ventures. Hall and Aaron kick of this episode learning about Aarons background before investing in early stage companies. Aaron has seen both sides of investing both from the startup angle as well as a CEO, he shares advice he'd give to someone investing in startups. As the interview progresses you'll learn about the investment thesis at 198...

Hall is joined by Christian Kameir of Sustany Capital. Hall and Christian kick off this episode diving into Christians background before investing in early stage companies. Starting in the 80's with computer programming, Christian is a technologist at heart. He then got a law degree and did regulatory work for the general federal communication commision. After recently hosting the Emerge ICO Summi...

In this episode, Hall interviews David Mes of Off the Grid Ventures. OTG focuses on early-stage investment in 'off the grid' entrepreneurs – women and foreign founders - specializing in B-to-B technology companies.

In this episode, Hall interviews Paul McNeal of cryptomarket360, a one-stop shop for cryptocurrency information. Paul talks about his varied background before coming to the crypto space. He and Hall talk about the state of investing in blockchain, and how the industry is evolving, and future regulatory influences. Paul discusses how the industry is moving on from ICOs to security token offerings f...

In this episode, Hall interviews Andrey Voronkov of Voronkov Ventures. Voronkov Ventures is an investment and consulting company working in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and provides services on ICO analytics, investment and consulting. Leaning on the its own ranking system, the company gives detailed analysis of ICOs to investors. Voronkov Ventures has developed several projects b...

In this episode, Hall interviews Tim Enneking, Director of Digital Capital Management. DCM focuses on managing investment portfolios of digital currencies and related assets through fund structures designed for investment by US and Non-US high net worth individuals and institutional investors, including strategic investments in promising early-stage blockchain projects.