Greg Kidd Founder/CEO 3taps, an early stage investor & advisor to Twitter & Square. He founded and took public Dispatch Management Services Corp (DMSC) – the world’s largest on demand dispatch network for urgent deliveries. The company purchased more than 60 companies from Perth, Australia to Edinburgh, Scotland and the successws and mistakes of the endeavor have been chronicled in a case study taught at the Harvard Business School. From the lessons learned about “free-call” dispatching of bike messengers came insights that led DMSC alumni to start a wealth of new ventures – the most noteworthy of which have been Twitter and now Square by Jack Dorsey. Greg was an angel investor for Twitter’s first funding round and serves as a risk adviser for Square. Greg is an active angel investor in other startups that match seekers and providers (Hailo, Parking Panda, Meexo, Kabbage, and Craiggers). He is a founder and CEO of 3taps and Anoni, which facilitate searching, messaging and payments for these and other general exchange spaces like Craigslist. Besides startups, Greg’s time in the corporate world has been as a management and risk consultant for Booz Allen and the Promontory Financial Group. His focus has been on disruptive effects occurring in de-regulating industries (telecoms, transportation, financial services). Greg’s tenure in the public sector has been as a senior analyst for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in Washington DC. Greg’s time in the not-for-profit sector has been as a leader for Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School. Prior to explorations of data visualization at Stanford’s HCI program, Greg studied public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, management at the Yale School of Management, and history at Brown University. Greg’s observation is that the little insights behind big startups can come from any person and any corner of the earth. The role of angels is to find and back the persons that have those insights. You can find Greg on Twitter @gregkidd
What are the little insights behind big outcomes for new ventures? And what is the difference between an ‘insight’ versus a mere ‘idea’. Greg Kidd discusses observations about the path to success for some of the most valuable startups in & outside of Silicon Valley. Hear why setting out to solve big problems rather than make money has the potential to yield the most amazing outcomes & remarkably short time frames.

Buddy Arnheim, Partner Perkins Coie’s Business practice, focuses his practice on the representation of emerging growth companies, venture capital funds and investment banks. Buddy is widely acknowledged as a leading practitioner in the areas of corporate and securities law and corporate governance matters. He has been involved in hundreds of transactions such as public equity and debt offerings, merger/acquisition transactions, private equity and venture capital financing transactions, and complex restructurings and spin-off transactions. His clientele includes startup and well-established emerging growth companies, primarily in the software, information technology, Internet, fixed and mobile communications technology, cleantech and life sciences sectors. He heads the firm’s Emerging Company practice and Co-Chairs both the firm’s Israel and Cleantech practice groups. Recently, Buddy became an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, where he teaches a course on entrepreneurship. Buddy has lectured at various professional and industry seminars as well as at nationally recognized universities. He co-authored “The Public Company Handbook: A Practical Guide for Officers and Directors,” published by Bowne Financial Printing.

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FinTech Silicon Valley

FinTech Silicon Valley podcasts are focused on educating and highlighting FinTech in Silicon Valley to the global community both through video and audio. These podcasts are short and fun, one on one interviews by FinTech Silicon Valley journalists with experts and investors on how they are contributing to the community and what their perspective is on the future of FinTech.

Yash Patel is General Partner at Telstra Ventures, a San Francisco-based VC firm that differentiates by generating revenue for its portfolio with strategic channel partners and customer relationships as well as by using data science to drive its investment process. Yash's focus is on the consumer side of fintech, Web3, crypto, esports, gaming, SaaS apps, ecommerce, and marketplace. Some of his standout fintech investments while at Telstra Ventures are companies like Super.com (Super Apps) and Playbook (next-gen wealthtech). Previously, Yash was the Director of Corporate Development & Strategy at Adknowledge and was part of the technology investment banking team at Jefferies & Company prior.