Bart Stephens Founder/Managing Partner Blockchain Capital. Bart has also been a Managing Partner of Stephens Investment Management, LLC (SIM), a family owned and operated hedge fund and venture capital firm. Bart and his brother and Co-Founder, Brad, invented the term and pioneered “Nanocap” investing – venture capital style investing in the public markets focused on sub micro-cap equities. Bart has a background as both an operating entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, holding senior positions at Ivanhoe Capital Corporation (ICC), Oncology.com, and E*TRADE. Bart earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Princeton University in 1997.
Michael Walsh General Partner Green Visor Capital & has over 13 years of financial services industry experience, including 10 years of institutional investing experience. Prior to joining Green Visor Capital, Michael was a partner and founding member of Lusman Capital Management, a hedge fund that was capitalized with approximately $400 million. His investment experience extends across assets classes (equity, distressed debt, derivatives, convertibles, private investments), industries (financial services, energy, mining, industrials, telecom, healthcare), and geographies (US, Canada, Australia, Europe, Latin American, Asia, Africa.) Michael also spent three years at Citigroup in the Investment Banking Division where he helped raised billions of dollars in equity and debt transactions for financial institutions (banking, insurance, asset management) as well as assisting in M&A advisory work. Michael received his BA in Economics from Harvard College.
Sam Wen Venture Partner Green Visor Capital & helps the Green Visor team assess emerging technologies, works as an adviser to portfolio companies, and mentors young engineers within the group. Before joining Green Visor, Sam was a founding team member and senior engineer of Square, the revolutionary mobile commerce platform and point-of-sale system for small merchants and individuals. Among his many achievements at Square, Sam was responsible for creating the software algorithm that enables the card reading capabilities of all Square devices on iOS and Android phones and tablets. Sam’s efforts helped lead to 7 issued patents and one patent pending. Prior to Square, Sam worked for Boeing as a munitions systems engineer. Sam holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and is a member of the Founder’s 50.
Joe Guzel Crosslink Capital from 2016 and is focused on investments in financial technology, digital media, e-commerce, and consumer technology. Prior to joining Crosslink, Joe was an investor with CrossCut Ventures, an LA-based Seed firm, where he focused on investments across consumer tech, gaming, ecommerce and digital media. Prior to his career in venture, Joe was with Intuit where he held a variety of operating roles; most notably with the Corporate Strategy and Development team where he focused on global expansion initiatives and participated in over $2B worth of M&A transactions.
Adam Draper Founder/Managing Director Boost VC. Adam is a 2x entrepreneur and a 4th generation venture capitalist. In 2009, the same year that Adam graduated from UCLA, he founded Xpert Financial, a secondary market for private securities. After settling millions of dollars in private security transactions and becoming a registered broker dealer, he left Xpert Financial in late 2012 and began angel investing, where he backed such startups as Coinbase, Plangrid and Earnest. Currently his portfolio of investments is valued at more than $1.5B. Adam then partnered up with Brayton Williams and to change the face of global startup mentorship. The focus of Boost VC on future technology development stems from Adam Draper’s dream to create an Iron Man suit.
MODERATOR: Phil Jeudy Director Baywatch Lab, a company part of a Family Office which controls a distribution network with a worldwide reach. Phil started his career in finance in 1990 within International groups before developing since 2007 lobbying activities for European companies interested to develop their activities with tech leaders in Silicon Valley, including companies having activities in Fintech. Phil writes chronicles about the startup ecosystem in Silicon Valley on several French online magazines.
