Peter Rostovsky is the Founder & CEO of Raiseway, which makes investment crowdfunding easy and affordable for small business owners with its AI-enabled SaaS platform. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Crowdfunding Professional Association.
In the past, Peter worked in Business Development for Crowdfund Better, produced interviews for FintechTV, and consulted businesses on crowdfunding, private equity fundraising, marketing & sales. Peter is a former capital markets intelligence salesman for Preqin, Debtwire, Xtract Research & Continuum Economics, where his clients included the World Bank, Federal Reserve, EY, Blackrock, Blackstone, Kirkland & Ellis, CBRE, Interamerican Development Bank, Apollo, Oaktree, and others.
We learned about:
Finding debt and revenue-sharing deals in the U.S. investment crowdfunding market
Doing due diligence on these deals
Identifying sales opportunities for our BPO services in the Reg CF market
Supporting Bengali small business owners in the United States with investment crowdfunding
Hailing from the picturesque landscapes of rural Alberta, Canada, Neil's journey has been varied. With a career spanning continents and industries, he initially honed his craft in various operational and leadership roles across four continents within the ever-evolving realm of oil and gas.
In a twist of fate, Neil took a leap of faith into the world of angel investing with Startup TNT in 2020. What started as a stroke of luck soon transformed into a passion project as he dedicated himself to leading the charge in the Calgary region for the next three years. From these beginnings as a volunteer to his current role as the Partnerships Lead, Neil's mission is clear: to build community by increasing the number of investors in the space, investing early, and investing locally.
Jesse is a multi-faceted entrepreneur, investor, and consultant with a broad skill set, wide knowledge base, and extensive network. Jesse enjoys helping others create a better future for themselves and for us all. In 2021, he formed WieGrow Capital and Consulting with his father, Doyle Wiebe, and joined Startup TNT as the Local Lead in Saskatchewan to achieve those goals. He also manages local creatives through WieManage: Creative Asset Management and works with his family to put on an annual festival called Art in the Garden. He loves creating synergistic connections and has helped prairie startups raise over 2 million dollars.
We learned about:
The origin story of Startup TNT
Its continued evolution into geographic expansion, and new models including the venture fund
Deep dive into a few portfolio companies
A 30,000 ft view of the Western Canadian venture ecosystem, funding landscape, what kind of companies are coming out, quality of entrepreneurial talent, and Startup TNT's role in it
Tapping into diaspora communities in W. Canada like Bangladeshis, and others
Ricky Pearl loves problem-solving. From birthday treasure hunts with his family to complex business challenges, he has never been presented with a problem that he hasn't relished the opportunity to solve -the more creative the solution the better. So when he noticed that many business owners seemed to be encountering the same issues with hiring, training, and managing their sales teams - he knew there "was something there."
He drew on his extensive management, sales, and technical experience to create Pointer - an outsourced sales agency that uniquely provides "sales as a service" to businesses who don't have the time or resources to effectively manage their own internal sales department.
Since founding Pointer, South African-born Ricky has established himself as one of Australia's sales leaders, partnering with organisations like Start Up Vic, Pavilion, and RevGenius to bring sales knowledge, advice, and new ideas for getting each client’s solution or product in front of the business managers who need them most.
In this discussion, Ricky shared:
His background and how he came to be in this space
His career and his journey to Pointer
Overview of Pointer, the kind of clients it takes on, and its revenue model
How sales differ when it's founder-led vs team-led
How should sales interact with product development? What about product marketing?
Product-led growth/inbound vs outbound - when is one better than the other?
Building relationships within the portfolio and future growth plan for pointer
Javette Nixon is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and investor. In addition to being the founder of Seaforth Holdings Limited, a boutique investment and holding firm specializing in impact investing and the nurturing of emerging businesses and social enterprises, Javette has three other companies under his business portfolio which include Point Global Marketing Limited, Esther Ventures Limited, and Esther Finance Limited. Moreover, he serves as a director at Vein Centers of Jamaica Ltd and the Social & Economic Alliance for Development.
With a wealth of experience spanning over two decades in diverse industries across the United States and Jamaica, Javette demonstrates a fervent commitment to volunteerism and philanthropy, coupled with expertise in areas such as web development and design, economics, commerce, media, e-commerce, banking, and Internet marketing.
In this session, Javette shared:
His background and the path that led him to become a serial entrepreneur, investor, and speaker, alongside insights into his experiences in the United States and Jamaica
His vision and strategies regarding Seaforth Holdings Limited's focus on impact investing and nurturing emerging businesses and social enterprises
The companies in his diverse portfolio
His multifaceted interests and expertise
Mr. Thompson has been active in the start-up venture space for over 25 years as a builder of companies, angel investor, angel group leader and fund manager. In 2017, Mr. Thompson integrated all these roles into Valhalla Private Capital. In his capacity as Chairman and CEO of Valhalla Private Capital & Managing Partner of Old Kent Road Financial, Mr. Thompson has personally invested in 110 start-up companies and funds. Mr. Thompson oversees direct investing for 125 angel members and 5 funds under management for a total of over $225 million (CDN) in deployed capital.
Valhalla Angels has led its 125+ members to collectively fund over 250 companies for over $70 million dollars since 2003. While most of these investments are in Canada, several of the investments including the funds have been placed globally in 8 additional countries to date. For these efforts, Mr. Thompson was named the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) 2018 Canadian Angel of the Year and was awarded Startup Canada’s investor of the year for 2015. In addition, he has been asked to share his knowledge and first-hand experience of the startup ecosystem through formal speaking and instruction engagements in 28 countries over the last 3 years.
Mr. Thompson spends a lot of time in the European ecosystem because of his ownership in an English Football League (EFL) club. Since 2018, Mr. Thompson has been a 25% owner of Peterborough United Football Club (PUFC).
We will hear from him on:
His personal background and how he has come to be in this space
Initial vision, strategy and evolving operating model of VA, including the overview of Base Camp
His thoughts on key models/businesses within his portfolio
His thoughts on the South Asian/SE Asian ecosystem and its comparison with the ones he is working with
Advice for aspiring founders, investors from Bangladesh
On this episode, Naushad UzZaman discussed cybersecurity, distortion of public opinion, and the use of artificial intelligence and data analysis to combat them. Naushad holds a PhD along has over two decades of experience in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing, and has applied expertise in both academic research and social enterprise that comes from time spent at leading firms such as Nuance, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Bosch - and now at Blackbird.AI.
Naushad is responsible for the development of Blackbird’s Narrative & Risk Intelligence Platform, and along with his team, has built a unique series of scalable AI and network analysis modules that detect rare risk signals of threats. The real-time AI-powered narrative detection and risk intelligence platform is used by leading enterprises, Fortune 500’s, and large government organizations, globally.
In this session, we learned about:
Naushad's personal background and how he came to be in this space
His career, key companies he was part of, and experience building teams, products, and businesses
Deep dive into how Blackbird AI was founded and built
Thoughts on Bangladesh and how to connect the ecosystem with NRBs like himself
Craig D’Cruze is a multifaceted entrepreneur with a passion for investing. In his 25+ years in equities markets, Craig has developed his outlook that emerging technologies will alleviate the largest hurdles facing the human race.
Prior to joining Inverted Ventures Craig lead teams of between 22 and 70 people as an award-winning Executive Chef for companies like Marriott Hotels International, Delta Hotels, and The University of Calgary. Cost control, budgeting, creativity but most importantly team building, mentoring and growth.
Craig has always been fascinated with numbers, finance, P&L, and cost effectiveness. His attention to detail gives him the ability to read between the lines when analyzing innovative investment ideas.
These factors have led Craig to take on the role of Chief Operating Officer for Inverted Ventures and is responsible for leading the research team on early-stage venture capital investments and cryptocurrency portfolio development.
We heard from him on:
Mainul Mondal is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Member of the Board of Directors of Ellipsis Health. As a skilled healthcare IT business leader, Mondal has deep experience in the technology, healthcare, pharmaceutical, retail and defense sectors. In 2020, he was selected as a Milestone Maker by the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center and he serves as a member of the World Economic Forum – working to improve the state of the world by engaging leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. Previously, Mondal helped launch the ClearStreme initiative with the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. Prior to founding Ellipsis Health, Mondal was a Rockefeller Fellow at the Public Health Institute. He has presented lectures, ran workshops, and has been a guest speaker at leading universities including Stanford University, the University of California, and the Indian Institutes of Technology.
Tahasin Alam is a VC-backed CTO and Co-Founder of Belong Health. He also has two major startup exits under his belt: one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States acquired his first startup, and his next startup went public in just 3.5 years - a testament to his strategic prowess and dedication to innovation. As an experienced entrepreneur with over 23 years in healthcare, Tahasin is skilled at building and scaling tech-enabled healthcare companies, with notable success as a founding team member or co-founder in the healthcare space. Startups that he has been a part of have received funding from top healthcare venture capital firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Maverick Ventures, and NEA, among others. This demonstrates the value he provides to the healthcare industry and the quality of his work. In addition to his entrepreneurial achievements, Tahasin possesses extensive domain expertise in health insurance and healthcare delivery. He has been instrumental in helping launch the modern primary care model and has been a driving force behind advancements in population health management. His expertise and experience in healthcare have made him a leading expert and a valuable resource in the ever-changing healthcare landscape. We heard from him on: - His personal background and how he came to be in this space - Going through his career, key health-tech companies he was a part of, experience building teams, products, businesses - Current role and the venture studio model for health - His approach to advisory work - His plans for Bangladesh and emerging markets
IQ is an entrepreneur & technology leader, currently the Cofounder of Fenix, and previously CTO of Circ (acquired by Bird). He leads Engineering, Product, Data & Design teams, and has been advising startups in different stages and sectors (including mobility, e-commerce and fintech), with focus on tech architecture, processes and teams. He spent most of his early career in the Valley, working for VMware, Facebook and Illumio. He then moved to Dubai and built the in-house engineering team for Careem (the leading ride-hailing provider, and now a super-app, in the MENA region), scaling the tech team to 250+ engineers. He then went to Lyft in Munich, to lead the Autonomous Driving team working on AI/ML for AVs.IQ has several patents, and has participated in tech innovation and exponential business growth in multiple markets & verticals. He went to Stanford University for graduate school, where he got an MS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Computational Math.
We will hear from him on:
- His personal background and how he came to be in this space
- His work with Careem, experience building the team from scratch, key inflection points in the tech/business
- Taking an exit, building your own company, selling it
- His approach to angel investing/advisory work
- How Bangladesh & Pakistan tech entrepreneurs/ecosystems can work together
Tasnia Huque, she’s Principal at Javelin Venture Partners - a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups from a wide variety of industries like cloud, data, enterprise software, education, auto finance, retail, and digital media.At Javelin, Tasnia is focused on new deals and portfolios across the future of work and consumer internet. She also supports the Partners across several other categories, including proptech, fin-tech, B2B SaaS, and web3. She has also worked in technology and capital advisory, directly or peripherally, for over a decade.
Imran Khan is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Verishop, a social
commerce company with a mission to create a more joyful shopping experience for its
community. In addition, Imran is also the founder and CEO of Proem Asset
Management, an investment firm that focuses on the technology space.
Prior to co-founding Verishop, Imran served as Snap Inc.’s Chief Strategy Officer,
where he oversaw the company’s corporate strategy, revenue generation, business
operations, and partnerships. Under his leadership, Snap’s annual revenue run rate
increased to $1.6 billion from zero in less than four years.
Previously, Imran was a Managing Director and Head of Global Internet Investment
Banking at Credit Suisse where he advised on more than $45 billion worth of Internet
M& A and financing transactions. Before joining Credit Suisse, Imran held the role of
Managing Director and Head of Global Internet Research at JPMorgan Chase.
We will hear from him on:
- His personal background and journey to get to Verishop
- Experience in his roles as a financier, operator, and investor
- How he sources, onboard, and supports brands through Verishop
- The operating model behind a fully remote company
- Future of retail and e-commerce in America
- Advice for Bangladeshi founders
Mohammed Ridwan and Nayeem Zen, co-founders of Pluto Card.
Mohammed Ridwan is the Co-founder, COO & Chief Product Officer. His core expertise is in go-to-market strategy development and building payment & artificial intelligence infrastructure software products. He has successfully led many strategies & execution of multiple software & payment products with large cross-functional teams of 30+ members. Ridwan will be sharing his expertise in go-to-market strategy development and building payment & artificial intelligence infrastructure software products.
Nayeem Husain Zen is the Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer of Pluto Technologies. He has served at various senior positions as a software engineer and technical leader at multinational technology companies such as Shopify, Square, and Uber. Nayeem also brings in a wealth of fintech experience, having been a core part of the early engineering team at Square’s Cash App - one of the largest consumer payment apps in the US. Nayeem will be sharing his expertise in technical design, strategy and architecture, product delivery, engineering leadership, and data security and compliance.
We will hear from them on:
- How the Pluto team built a product that meets customer needs through user research, rapid prototyping, and iterative design.
- Strategies for building partnerships with other companies, including approaches to identifying potential partners, negotiating deals, and managing ongoing relationships.
- The importance of customer experience and how Pluto built a trusted and valued brand that puts customers first
- What Pluto does to cultivate a culture of teamwork
- Their thoughts on driving innovation and growth in Bangladesh's fintech space
Sasha Mirchandani is Managing Director and Founder of Kae Capital and Co-founder of Mumbai Angels. Kae Capital is a pioneer of early-stage investing in India, focused on tech startups, and has been investing in India for 10+ years. Founded in 2012, and based out of Mumbai and Bengaluru, Kae is a sector-agnostic fund that invests in pre-seed to pre-series A stages. Kae has a portfolio enterprise valuation of $8.52 billion, having invested in over 79 startups, with a portfolio mix of B2B and B2C startups. Some of the marquee names are Tata 1mg (health tech), @Zetwerk (manufacturing tech), Porter (logistics tech), 1K (B2B retail tech), and Wysa (health tech).
Previously, Sasha was at BlueRun Ventures as Managing Director for the India operations. Before joining BlueRun Ventures he was CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies. Earlier he was at Mirc Electronics (Onida) where he was Head of Corporate Affairs and new business. His investments include Inmobi, Healthkart,1Mg, Myntra, Porter and Fractal Analytics. Sasha sits on the Boards of Zee Entertainment, Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited, Nazara Technologies Limited, Healthkart and Mumbai Angels Venture Mentors among others. Previously he was on the Boards of Fractal Analytics, Myntra and Ador Welding.
Sasha completed his Business Administration from Strayer University and MMDP program at IIM, Ahmedabad. He is a Charter Member at TiE Mumbai and was inducted into their 2019 Hall of Fame as an Outstanding Angel Investor. He is also the Past President of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) Mumbai.
We will hear from him on:
- The early-stage investing landscape in India and how it has evolved
- The key factors that investors look for in a startup before making an investment
- How to build a successful startup in today's competitive market
- Common mistakes that startups make and how to avoid them
- The future of early-stage investing and the opportunities it presents
- His thoughts on Bangladesh’s Startup Ecosystem
Patricia Sosrodjojo is General Partner at Seedstars International Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on emerging markets. The fund has invested in over 30 countries across Latam, Africa, MENA, CEE and Asia, backing ventures working to solve key societal challenges such as access to financial services, commerce, healthcare, and education. The fund is part of the Seedstars Group, founded in 2012 in Switzerland with a network covering over 90 countries.
Patricia has over 15 years of investing and management consulting experience across Asia Pacific and the U.S. Prior to joining Seedstars, she was a Venture Partner at AC Ventures, an early-stage VC in Indonesia, where she led portfolio management and value creation platform for the fund. Previously, Patricia was an Executive Director at Falcon House Partners, an Indonesian private equity fund, where she invested in high-growth companies in the consumer space. Earlier in her career, Patricia worked in the private equity arm of Lehman Brothers as well as global consulting firms such as Booz Allen Hamilton and L.E.K Consulting.
An advocate for greater diversity and inclusion in the investment sector, Patricia is active in the startup community and has been involved in initiatives on gender lens investing and impact investing. She holds a BA in Economics and International Relations from Tufts University and an M.A in Economic Development from The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Robin Butler is a Partner at Sturgeon Capital, a London-based VC investing in early-stage startups in nascent venture ecosystems.
Robin has spent the last 10 years living, working, and studying in emerging markets, including a degree in Arabic and Middle Eastern History, 9 months living in Iran learning Farsi, and the last five and a half years working for Sturgeon Capital in Central and South Asia. This somewhat eclectic, atypical background for a VC brings a different perspective on the opportunity set in the countries where Sturgeon invests, as well as a passion for delivering a positive impact through our portfolio investments.
Robin is responsible for the deal sourcing, due diligence, and investment side of the business at Sturgeon, spending two-thirds of his time traveling.
We will hear from him on:
-His role in accelerating the digital transition in emerging markets such as Bangladesh
-The future of digital transformation and its impact on businesses and society
-The role of venture capital in promoting digital transformation
-The cultural understanding of investment decision-making & his strategies for making successful early-stage investments
We in the Bangladesh ecosystem look at Pakistan's with a mixture of awe and wonder...how exactly have they been able to grow so much faster than ours, when we have comparable economies? Here's a chance to learn from one of their greatest connectors: Aly Fahd from Paklaunch.
Aly Fahd is the Founder of Paklaunch (PL), a global community of Pakistani entrepreneurs, professionals and investors. Paklaunch started as a single WhatsApp group on 29th April, 2020 by seven friends to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan and the larger MENAPT region.
The platform has since grown to 300K+ member strong, hosted three major tech conferences and 300+ events; and facilitated 80+ startups raising $80M+ in the last two years. They are now planning an UnConference in Dubai where top 50 Pakistani entrepreneurs, large family offices and Pakistan-based investors will be coming to Dubai for two days to meet global investors.
Aly Fahd is Head of Strategic Sourcing at a Bay Area Tech Startup. He has previously worked in Engineering, Product Management and Operations for tech companies such as Amazon and Juniper. He has an MBA from Cornell University, NY and MS Mechanical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
We will hear from him on:
- Initial vision, strategy and evolving operating model of PKL
- 30000 ft view of the Pakistan ecosystem and its operating model, its similarities/differences compared to Bangladesh
- Key businesses/companies in the ecosystem
- How Bangladesh & Pakistan tech entrepreneurs can work together
Jed Ng from Angel School joins us for the latest episode of SCALE. Jed is an Operator who builds tech businesses from the ground up. He built and ran the world's largest API marketplace in partnership with a16z-backed, RapidAPI. As an Angel, he has backed 2 startups from seed to Unicorn, and has an exit. Since 2020, he has built his own syndicate and is backed by a Super Network of 900+ LPs globally.
He founded AngelSchool.vc with the mission of helping Angel investors build their own investor networks and invest at $100k+ scale.
In this episode hear from him on:
- The initial vision and evolving operating model of AngelSchool.vc
- How to build an investment thesis, how to conduct due diligence, how to structure a syndicate, zero cost acquisition of LPs
- Vision for expansion into Asia
- How BAN members can be involved
Sadia Haque is the CEO and Co-Founder at ShareTrip, the country’s first and leading online travel platform that provides end to end travel solutions and experience.
Since its establishment, ShareTrip has served more than half a million travelers and onboarded over 5,000 agents onto its platform. It recently raised $500K from Startup Bangladesh Limited to fuel its international expansion, including another $4M from US-based VC Skycatcher earlier this year.
In this episode, we will hear from her on:
- How she transitioned from her corporate role into becoming a startup founder
- Advice for founders when fundraising across key stages
- How she manages her time, stakeholders and priorities as a founder, including as a women founder
- How can we foster a community of women entrepreneurs & investors in Bangladesh.
Amrita Vir is the Head of Strategy & Business Expansion, and Acting Country Manager at wagely and Sanjida Tanny is Lead of Community, and Communications, PR at wagely. wagely is Asia's leading financial wellbeing platform providing earned-wage access fintech operating in Bangladesh and Indonesia. It recently raised $8.3 million in pre-Series A funding, led by East Ventures (Growth Fund), with participation from returning investors like Integra Partners, the Asian Development Fund, Global Founders Capital, Trihill Capital, Blauwpark Partners and 1982 Ventures. The raise will go towards fueling Wagely’s expansion in Bangladesh, where it recently launched, and build other features to become a “holistic financial wellness platform".
In this episode, we will hear from them on:
- the initial vision, the evolving operating model of wagely and the earned wage access product
- their thoughts on the Bangladesh ecosystem, especially as it compares to Indonesia
- Amrita's experience in investing as an angel
