Bart Stephens CoFounder/Managing Partner Blockchain Capital, the first venture capital fund to invest exclusively in the blockchain technology sector and the first to raise a venture fund through an ICO. Blockchain Capital is the pioneer and most established VC firm in the Blockchain sector with more than 75 portfolio companies across four funds. Prior to Blockchain Capital, Bart Stephens was Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Stephens Investment Management (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. Prior to co-founding SIM, Bart was Executive Vice President, Venture Capital for Ivanhoe Capital Corporation (ICC), an international investment firm. Before joining ICC, Bart was a founding investor and Head of Corporate & Business Development for Oncology.com. Oncology.com grew to become the internet’s largest cancer related web site before being sold to Pharmacia (now Pfizer) in 2001. Prior to Oncology.com, Bart spent more than two years with E*TRADE, an early internet innovator in online financial services. While at E*TRADE, he held senior positions focused on product marketing, business development and corporate development. Bart earned a B.A. in Political Science from Princeton University.
Mark Hamade Partner Vivaris Capital LLC an 18 year old private equity firm. Mark Hamade is a Conscious Capitalist, meaning he passionately respects People, the Planet and Profitable enterprise, and believes that organizations have a responsibility to uphold all three Ps equally. He is an accomplished, visionary senior executive with more than twenty years’ experience in driving revenue growth, building world-class teams, enforcing cultures of excellence, strengthening operational effectiveness and increasing profitability. A strategist, developer and leader of people and culture, and a go-to Merger and driving growth in strategic operational roles with measurable top-line results of over $1 Billion. He has had returns between 21% and 68%. His career spans multiple industries, including renewable energy, enterprise software, industrial engineering and IT services. Mark is globally minded and globally well connected, having established offices in Mexico, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Far East. He maintains business connections in over 50 countries, including those with the wealthiest economies.
Jalak Jobanputra Founding Partner Future Perfect Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund in NYC focused on next generation technology such as blockchain and machine learning.FPV’s portfolio includes Abra, Open Garden, Blockstream, Bitpesa, FuseMachines, Everledger and Blockchain. Jalak was awarded Institutional Investor’s Top Fintech Dealmakers in 2017 and 2016. In 2017, she was cited as a “Top 5 Investor Powering the Blockchain Boom” and CB Insights noted FPV as one of the top VC funds in blockchain “before it was cool”. Since founding the firm, she has spoken on blockchain technology at many global conferences, including the Milken Global Institute, Dutch Development Bank/FMO annual meeting, and The Economist Buttonwood Gathering. Prior to FPV, Jobanputra was the Director of Emerging Market Mobile Investments at Omidyar Network, a philanthrocapitalist fund started by Pierre Omidyar, co-founder of eBay. Previously, she worked at Intel Capital investing in enterprise software in Silicon Valley from 1999-2003. as well as New Venture Partners and the NYC Investment Fund where she formed one of NYC’s first seed funds and helped establish the Fintech Innovation Lab in 2010. She started her career as a media/tech/telecom investment banker in NYC and London. Jobanputra is also active in supporting education reform and social entrepreneurship. She servedas a Trustee of Achievement First Bushwick Charter Schools (Brooklyn). She is on the Board of Directors for the Center for an Urban Future, Advisory Board of L’Oreal’s Women in Digital Initiative, member of Mayor DeBlasio’s Broadband Taskforce, and former Access to Capital Committee member of the US Secretary of State Clinton Women’s Leadership Council. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Economics (concentration in Finance) from The Wharton School and a B.A. in Communications from the Annenberg School. She received her MBA from Kellogg in 1999.
Shuonan Chen, Founding Partner IOVC/Agile VC, CEO of Shinect (Silicon Valley-based community of 5,000+ engineers passionate about entrepreneurship), and Board Member of North America Blockchain Association. At IO and Agile, Shuo has invested in and helped various startups globalize and expand into new markets; notable investments include Boom (unicorn), Chariot (acquired by Ford), Checkr (unicorn), Grubmarket, Matternet, Node.io, Rescale and Zenreach. She is also a Lecturer at UC Berkeley and Faculty at Singularity University. Prior, Shuo worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, where she was involved in deals including Alibaba’s $21.8 billion IPO, the largest IPO in US history. There, she also helped run the convertibles business and represented the firm on the Board of Women in Finance. Before that, Shuo was at PwC, where she worked on Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola and LinkedIn’s $119 million acquisition of SlideShare. She also ran Cashify, a social enterprise for financial literacy. Shuo graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley with a triple major (and 2 minors) in 3 years, and has been a Board Member for Berkeley’s alumni association. She also completed a JD with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where her work on financial regulation will be soon published by Cambridge University Press.
MODERATOR: John Boitnott journalist/digital consultant has worked at TV, newspapers, radio and Internet companies for 20 years. He’s an advisor at StartupGrind.com and has written for Fast Company, NBC, Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur, BusinessInsider, USAToday and Venturebeat among others.Moderator: John Boitnott, Journalist/Digital Consultant. John has worked at TV, newspapers, radio and Internet companies for 20 years. He’s an advisor at StartupGrind.com and has written for Fast Company, NBC, Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur, BusinessInsider, USAToday and Venturebeat among others.
