Village Global Podcast

Erik is joined by:- Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), fintech seed investor- Nick Caldwell (@nickcald), VP of Engineering at Twitter and angel investor- Anne Dwane (@adwane), partner at Village GlobalTo discuss:- The craft of angel investing.- How Village Global is trying to decentralize VC with its Network Leader program.- The benefits of the On Deck Angel Fellowship.- Nick and Sheel’s journeys to becoming angel investors.- Why networks appreciate over time.- The advice they would give to people getting started angel investing.- Their thought processes around making investments.- How they think about improving as an investor.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno), author of History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- What people don’t appreciate or misunderstand about China.- His thoughts on Fukuyama.- The west as a culture exporter.- Why this moment is a fork in the road for America and how it might play out for the country.- Twitter as a virtual reality platform.- How tech will transform society.- Whether a decentralized future will lead to more freedom.- Whether the state can be replaced by smart contracts.- What the legacy of COVID in society might be.- Some of the thinkers that he admires and where he agrees or disagrees with them.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Stephen Kosslyn (@skosslyn), president and Chief Academic Officer at Foundry College, joins Erik to discuss:- The current challenges in traditional academia. - When the purpose of universities changed from teaching to research.- What he’s working on at Foundry and how it’s differentiated from others in the space.- His requests for startups in education.- Why a community connection is important in learning.- What outsiders don’t realize or appreciate about the dynamics in universities.- Why the cost of education has gone up so much.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Noah Smith (@Noahpinion) of Bloomberg joins Erik on this episode to discuss:- Whether the current version of college as a “high tuition summer camp” can be sustained.- How universities will attract students.- Where he disagrees with Tyler Cowen on college.- How college has evolved over time.- How college will be unbundled.- Whether there will be corporate universities.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Jason Crawford (@jasoncrawford), author of The Roots of Progress, joins Erik to discuss:- The key aspects of human progress.- The history of progress over time.- Whether we’ve traded off progress for safety.- Why the idea of progress is relatively new.- What the nature of science fiction writing tells us about our vision for progress.- Why progress happens differently in different domains.- How to think about safety with respect to new technologies.- The impacts of slowing population growth.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Niko Skievaski (@niko_ski), founder and president of Redox, and Nikita Singareddy (@singareddynm), investor at RRE Ventures, join Erik to discuss:- How regulation has changed the landscape in healthcare.- How to figure out what the the next wave in healthcare will be.- Why in the past government regulation has pulled technology into the present that wasn’t ready.- The biggest trends in healthcare now.- Where they would be investing if they were running a fund focused on the space.- What it takes to be successful in healthcare.- The state of the EHR space.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Anuj Abrol (@nujabrol), founder of Witty Wealth and formerly Chief of Staff at Atrium, joins Erik to discuss:- Why public stock activity has surged, especially among young people.- A primer on SPACs and their advantages and disadvantages.- Direct listings vs. IPOs vs. SPACs.- Why Slack is such a polarizing company.- Why there is dissatisfaction with roboadvisors.- The role of memes in public investing.- Whether there will be more new betting markets.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Mark Lutter (@MarkLutter), founder and executive director of the Charter City Institute, joins Erik. They discuss:- The key factors that make countries successful or prosperous.- The different schools of thought on charter cities.- What the key factors to get right with a charter city are.- What Silicon Valley understands and misunderstands about charter cities.- Why there are few true entrepreneurs in the US anymore.- His thoughts on Balaji Srinivasan’s ideas about charter cities.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Joey Krug, founder of Augur and partner at Pantera Capital, discusses the evolution of prediction markets, the current state of crypto, and the potential of Web3. Topics include Augur's updates, scalability challenges of Ethereum, regulatory hurdles for prediction markets, the perception of betting, exploring equity and popularizing capitalism, potential of decentralized social networks, and the problem with centralized oracles.

Erik's chat with founder/angel-turned-VC, @stevejang of @kindredventures, about supporting founders at seed and how building startups has changed in this cycle:- using a beginner’s mind- importance of creativity & taste in startups- no-code and democratizing access- marketplaces and community-ownership- a post-smartphone computing paradigm- post-COVID themesThanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.