The Founders Peak Podcast

Victor Mapunga is Zimbabwe's leading technology serial entrepreneur having built award winning solutions in Blockchain, Crypto, FinTech & E-commerce. He is the Founder & CEO of FlexID, a blockchain powered digital identity wallet which aims to unlock access to financial, insurance, healthcare & government services to over 400 Million Africans. He's the first Zimbabwean entrepreneur to...

Charlotte is an economist with a deep commitment to poverty reduction at scale. During her studies, Charlotte focused on and worked with Microfinance and East Africa, which led her to join PwC in 2014, where she focused on sustainable strategies and market entry. In 2019, Charlotte founded Jamii.one, a technology-driven company dedicated to building financial health and reducing poverty. As CEO an...

Nadeem Shaikh is a globally recognized voice in the Digital Financial Services industry. Having lived and worked globally, built, scaled, and invested in a range of businesses, he has unique insight as an entrepreneur, innovator, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. Over the past decade, he has been at the heart of the "Fintech" revolution. Recognizing that the fundamental needs of customers we...

Sofie is CEO of hiveonline, the sustainable digital finance solution connecting the African informal economy. Prior to founding hiveonline, Sofie built multiple core banking and payments systems for 8 international banks in 60 countries, and led whole business transformations and new bank builds. She has led teams up to 2,000 people and budgets of over $1bn. She holds an MSc in informatics, chairs...

Shinichi Takatori convincingly backs his bold claim having successfully raised an eye-popping $120Mn in venture funding so far – all with no prior experience. As Founder and CEO of Kyash, Shinichi calls inexperience his superpower. In his talk, Shinichi shares authentic insights and inspiration from his incredible journey as a first-time entrepreneur.

Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Code Chrysalis in Japan, Yan Fan is aiming to make Japan a global software leader. In 2016, she co-founded and served as CTO of a coding bootcamp in Jordan helping train and place refugees in engineering careers. In her talk, Yan introduces the concept of ‘context switching’ for scaling founders, of which she herself is one.

Genri Goto built Japan’s largest online drugstore kenko.com, and led it to a successful IPO. He even sued the government and won! And he is at it again. This time with his multilingual translation service company, Kotozna. In his talk, Genri boldly states that Japan has been trapped in a state of stagnation over the last 3 years, and that he has decided to disrupt this stillness, and act as a cata...

Tim Romero is Head of Google for Startups Japan, and the Founder of Disrupting Japan Podcast. He is deeply involved in Japan’s community as an investor, founder, author, and educator. In his talk, Tim delivers a bold, mesmerising, and authentic untold story of why he decided to call off his start-up all at the 9th hour.

Chiaki Hayashi, co-founder of Loftwork. In her talk, Chiaki speaks from her heart as she boldly shares her own tough recovery from a stroke a few years ago. She believes the future for Japan is rural, and she has been working with woodworkers there to use new technologies such as 3D printing. A café in Shibuya is now the best manifestation of that work. She warmly invites us all to Cafe Espresso M...

Satoko Ohtsuki is the CEO and Co-founder of Spider Labs, which provides an AI-driven fraud detection tool. In her talk, Satoko says that Japan has not seen a major global success start-up in the last 20 years. She touches upon a very critical aspect which may be unique to Japan.

Jeff Wentworth co-founded Tokyo-based blockchain software company, Curvegrid, in 2017. With their blockchain middleware, building on blockchain becomes simple and affordable. In his talk, Jeff shares his experience of surviving a black swan event that taught him invaluable lessons about resilience, transparency, adaptability, and the power of a strong network.

Tia Haygood is the owner and Principal photographer at TOPTIA Photography. In her talk, Tia shares how we should convert our insecurities into confidence. In this inspiring and heart-warming talk, Tia takes us on a journey on how to create your own cover story. Can a photo make an audience feel that you are very good at your job? Tia knows it can.

Jonathan Hope created Keychain with a vision that every individual, corporate, or government, can manage digital trust independent of big technology. In his talk, Jonathan recalls how he was laughed at for years. People would ask him what ‘digital trust’ even means.

Nalin Advani is the President of TiE Japan. A hands-on investor with 2 IPOs from 20 Seed/Series A investments so far. Wow, impressive!

Naotaka Nishiyama is the Founder of Tech Japan, and strongly believes in the importance of achieving both economic growth and a society that promotes emotional well-being. His personal mission is to provide opportunities for individuals to make them shine. Today, Nishiyama is dedicated to providing opportunities for individuals to excel in both non-monetary and business fields through his work at...

Jim Weisser is a builder. He founded his first company back in 2000. His second was acquired by Cisco. Jim joined Cisco as part of the acquisition. But he returned to his entrepreneurial roots in 2019 starting SignTime. He for sure knows a thing or two about building successful and effective start-up teams.

Fumiko Inada is the Co-founder & CEO of ENTREBITION by Bee Informatica, who is spearheading the launch of an innovative online platform designed to empower entrepreneurs by providing a comprehensive network for finance and knowledge sharing.

Dr. Masahiro Fukuhara is the CEO and Founder of Institution for a Global Society Corporation. In his talk, Masahiro talks about how he pushes the boundaries of innovation, striving to create a brighter, more equitable world.

Jun Yamadera, founder of Eyes, JAPAN co. ltd., established the company in 1995, making it the first IT startup from the University of Aizu, Fukushima.  Over the past 20 years, he has spearheaded numerous cutting-edge projects, including exporting Fukushima rice through the web in 1995 and creating the world's first virtual pottery system. 

Mack is the world's youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe solo in a microlight aircraft at age 17 years, and two-times Guinness World Record holder. In this talk, Mack shares moments from his incredible 54,000-km journey flying to over 30 countries across 4 continents in 142 days. Showcasing the best of human endurance, Mack tells us what determination and raw courage is about!

Dr. Julian Hosp⁠ is the CEO and Co-Founder of ⁠Cake DeFi⁠ . Cake DeFi is a fully transparent, highly innovative fintech platform dedicated to providing easy access to decentralised financial services and applications by enabling users to generate returns from their crypto and digital assets.  Julian is widely regarded as a leading influencer in the crypto space, with over one million followers acr...

Vineet K. Singh is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of work experience in sectors across Payments, PropTech, E-commerce & Classifieds. He was part of the Management Team of Info Edge as a CBO for 15 years. He built and scaled Naukri, 99acres & Mobikwik from scratch to be market leaders.  Vineet’s current endeavour, Castler, is building India's First Digital Escrow Banking product for...

You could say that Alice Chen took a scenic route to becoming a Fintech entrepreneur, after practising law in multiple jurisdictions around the world with firms such as Skadden Arps and DLA Piper, she co-founded InvestaX, a Singapore-licensed investment and trading platform for digital securities and security tokens in 2015, with a focus on providing a turn-key tokenization and security token trad...

With over three decades of diversified global experience in the financial services, Suresh Sethi is a practitioner in the space of financial inclusion. He has worked extensively towards shaping the digital and mobile payments space in India by leveraging fintech and digital-led innovations. As the founder CEO & MD of India Post Payments Bank, he established the largest inter-operable banking i...

Victor Alexiev is a seasoned venture builder, tech entrepreneur, and corporate innovation leader with over 20 years of experience in managing product teams, digital innovation, and business building initiatives spanning across multiple industries and continents. During his career he has brought over 20 products from idea to commercialization, working closely with multi-cultural and cross-functiona...