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.
Interviews
Joe Guzel, Crosslink Capital #fintechinvestment
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.
Sam Wen, Green Visor Capital #fintechinvestment
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.
Valerian Bennett, PopChest #fintechmedia
Valerian Bennett Founder/CEO PopChest. Mr. Bennett is a veteran television producer/editor and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. He graduated from USC film and has worked on hit TV shows for E!, MTV, A&E, and many more. As a resident of Los Angeles and native to Silicon Valley, Valerian is perfectly suited to tackle the changing landscape of media distribution by employing cutting-edge blockchain technology. PopChest is the first community-supported video platform. No ads. No subscriptions. Using blockchain technology in our payment-enabled video player, PopChest let’s viewers send a few cents to support the artists they love while giving publishers the ability to make money in a whole new way.