Smart Humans with Slava Rubin

Max Levchin, founder of Affirm and PayPal, shares insights on entrepreneurship, angel investing, and the future of finance. Topics include challenges in raising money, reflections on cryptocurrency, importance of yield-oriented assets, innovative credit solutions, complexities of lending, and the evolution of companies like PayPal and Affirm.

Over a 25-year entrepreneurial career that spans IP communications, wireless telecom, and finance, Brian Dally has pushed the boundaries of how disruptive Internet technologies can be applied to solve large-scale consumer problems and distribute value to all.As the co-founder and CEO of Groundfloor, a wealth tech platform that allows everyone to build wealth through real estate, Brian has helped make private capital markets radically more accessible to new participants. Under his leadership, Groundfloor became the first company qualified by the SEC to offer direct real estate debt investments via Regulation A to non-accredited investors and accredited investors alike. In 2020, Groundfloor made its debut on Inc. Magazine’s prestigious list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America. It’s now been on the Inc 5000 list four years in a row. Most recently, Groundfloor was named to the 2024 Forbes Fintech 50 as one of the most important innovators changing the way people save, spend, and invest. Brian has also been recognized for his entrepreneurial leadership by many organizations.

Nelson Chu is an experienced serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Percent, the modern credit marketplace. After witnessing the inefficiencies in the private credit markets, Nelson was inspired to transform this industry for the better and founded Percent in 2018. He and his team have built an end-to-end credit platform unlike any other, empowering borrowers, underwriters, and investors to transact with confidence through governance, asset transparency, and market standardization. Nelson has been recognized by Private Debt Investor as a Rising Star in their annual list of the top 40 individuals shaping the future of private credit.

Ankur Nagpal is the founder of Carry and previously founded Teachable, which he scaled to $60M+ in ARR. Ankur also runs a venture fund, Vibe Capital and has invested in 100+ startups.

Darren Marble is a serial entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. Darren is the co-founder and CEO of Issuance, a leading software as a service (“SaaS”) platform for online capital raising. Issuance has processed more than $250 million from retail investors across its offerings to date. He is also an Executive Producer of Going Public, a groundbreaking original series that follows the stories of founders on their capital-raising journeys. For the first time, viewers globally can Click-to-Invest in featured companies while they watch.

Mark Gerson is an investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He co-founded Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), Thuzio, and most recently, 3i Members. Mark is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of United Hatzalah, a network of volunteer medics in Israel, and the African Mission Healthcare Foundation.3i Members is an investing network of 400+ investors—all who have exited a company or lead a family office. Members participate in monthly deal meetings, regional events, diligence discussions, and more. 3i deal flow is characterized by its high-yielding nature (15-20%+ IRRs), underwritable, uncorrelated, and off-market alternatives with asymmetric return profiles.See here:https://bit.ly/44ff6r1

Kelly Rodriques is the CEO of Forge Global, a leading global private securities marketplace. He’s accrued decades of domestic and international experience founding and successfully operating growth companies in the financial technology sector and his fintech experience spans both investing and financial services leadership. Formerly, he was the CEO of Pensco, Totality and Novo and was an Operating Partner with Ignition Growth Capital; He founded and remains managing partner of Operative Capital, an early stage financial technology investment fund.

Kendrick Nguyen, CEO of Republic, discusses the evolution of AI in operations, web three financial firms, and retail adoption in cryptocurrency. He explores Republic's growth, share drops, Reddit's potential IPO, and global expansion plans. Kendrick also shares personal investment recommendations for the future and insights on diverse topics like note-taking apps and digitizing assets.

Rebecca Kacaba is the CEO and Co-Founder of DealMaker, winner of Lexpert's Top 40 Under 40, and has been named one of North America's most innovative lawyers by the Financial Times, and one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women 2022. After over a decade of practicing securities law, she took an ambitious leap from her partnership at the world’s largest law firm and founded DealMaker to build a system that would make online capital raising mainstream. She is the force behind building DealMaker into one of Canada's Top 10 Fastest Growing Companies two years in a row as ranked by the Globe & Mail's Report on Business and a 2023 Deloitte Fast 50 Company-to-Watch. With a deep commitment to fostering a work culture that encourages ingenuity and creativity, Rebecca has helped guide DealMaker to land the second spot on Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators list.  With her vision and drive, Rebecca as a regular featured speaker has become a trailblazer in the intersection of the capital markets and tech, and is committed to driving change and doing business the right way.

Charles Clinton is the CEO and co-founder of EquityMultiple and is responsible for shaping the strategic vision of the company and overseeing its daily operations. Charles also sits on EquityMultiple’s Investment Committee and Board of Directors. Since its inception in 2015, EquityMultiple has transacted on hundreds of real estate investments, totaling over $5B in capitalization. Today, EquityMultiple serves over fifty thousand self-directed investors across the U.S.Prior to EquityMultiple, Charles was a real estate attorney with Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, where he worked on a variety of major transactions for private equity clients, primarily Blackstone and KKR. During his time at SImpson, he worked on over $10 billion in transactions, including Blackstone’s $1.7 billion purchase of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Blackstone’s $1.9 billion purchase of Motel 6 and Hilston’s real estate asset restructuring and refinancing in advance of its $2.5 billion IPO. Charles received his JD and Business Law Certificate from Berkeley Law and Bachelors Degree from Amherst College, where he was the captain of the swimming and water polo teams. He has FINRA Series 7 and 66 registrations. He lives in New York City, where he grew up, with his wife and two daughters.