AAAIM High ELI

Our guest for today’s podcast is Hailey Ji, Founder of HULA, a community-driven friend discovery platform that connects like-minded people and propels meaningful relationships through shared offline experiences.  Another way to think about HULA is a Bumble or Tinder app to find friends to attend cool events together, whether it be a Coldplay concert or an anime themed launch party.

I met Hailey at the Asian Hustle Network Conference in Las Vegas and I found her to be full of energy and optimism, two attributes that are definitely necessary for a start-up entrepreneur.  Hailey is a USC graduate and, after spending 4 years in marketing and digital media working with iconic brands like HBO Max and Fox Broadcasting, decided to quit her job and go all-in on launching HULA.

Hailey’s inspiration for starting HULA was based on her own personal experience.  In college, she was a big fan of Adele, yet none of her friends in her immediate circle shared her same passion for attending an Adele concert.  She needed an app like HULA.

As an Expat living in the U.S., Hailey deeply understands the current generations' loneliness and struggles of locating communities and making meaningful relationships, especially in metropolitan cities like New York City.

Without further ado, here is our conversation with Hailey Ji.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Helen Hwang, Senior Executive Managing Director at Meridian Investment Sales.  Helen is Head of the Institutional Investment Sales Group and is known as the most trusted commercial real estate advisor in NYC.

Over a 23+ year career in commercial real estate in NYC, Helen has executed over 100 institutional sales and recapitalization transactions exceeding $30 billion in value. Prior to joining Meridian, in 2015, Helen spent 16 years at Cushman & Wakefield as an Executive Vice President, as the head of NYC Investment Sales.

I truly enjoyed interviewing Helen for this podcast as she is a role model and inspiration for the AAAIM community.  Want to hear what it takes to be at the top of your profession, well, you are in for a treat.

Without further ado, here is our conversation with Helen Hwang.

Podcast Specific Introduction (unique for each podcast):
Our guest for today’s podcast is Ed Cong, Principal at Marathon Asset Management, which was founded by Bruce Richards and Louis Hanover in 1998 and currently manages over $23bn as of this recording.  Marathon is among the few storied asset management firms that has built an amazing brand over the past 20+ years.
 
Ed joined the firm in 2006 and has risen to become a member of the investment committee.  Not only has Ed survived over 16 years at a top hedge fund, but he has thrived, helping the firm navigate the global financial crisis in 2008 and being a critical member of the team that helped manage the US Treasury Public-Private Investment Program.  Structured credit has transformed significantly over the past decade and it takes a different type of intellect to pivot and evolve with the market’s demands – that’s Ed, he has been at the center of it all!
 
So what does it take to succeed as a hedge fund portfolio manager.  Ed shares his path and some sound advice along the way.
 
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Ed Cong.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Sadek Wahba, Chairman and Managing Partner of I Squared Capital.  He is an American economist and investor who focuses on infrastructure investments. Sadek began his career as an economist for the World Bank, where he worked on the social dimensions of structural adjustment. He subsequently joined Lehman Brothers and then Morgan Stanley, where he worked on structured financing. While with Morgan Stanley, Sadek launched Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and was Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure.  In 2012, Sadek made the entrepreneurial leap and formed I Squared Capital, a U.S.-based private equity group that invests in infrastructure projects in the U.S. and in developing economies, particularly China and India.
 
As of this recording, I Squared Capital manages over $30 billion in assets. The firm’s assets are focused in the energy, utilities, transport, digital infrastructure and social sectors in the U.S., Europe and in select high-growth economies including China, India and Latin America. I Squared Capital's portfolio companies employ over 12,000 professionals.
You often hear the saying that nice guys finish last.  This is certainly not the case for Sadek.
 
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Dr. Sadek Wahba.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Cindy Chen Delano, Co-Founder and Partner of Invictus Global Management, an emerging and diverse manager focused on opportunistic large-scale special situations across credit, bankruptcy claims and litigation finance.  Along with her Co-Founder and former Whitebox Advisors colleague, Amit Patel, Cindy successfully launched Invictus Global Management in 2019 and the firm now manages $200 million in assets in private equity-like vehicles.
 
Cindy has been an underdog all her life and her story really hits home for all of us chasing the American dream.  From her early days as an immigrant settling in New York City Chinatown to becoming a bankruptcy specialist lawyer, Cindy has overcome challenge after challenge and risen above time after time.  Grit, hustle, perservance – these are all words that define Cindy, one of the few Asian American woman to have successfully launched her own firm.
 
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Cindy Chen Delano.

Our guest for today’s podcast is James Liang, Founder of Skyline Ventures, a Shanghai-based venture capital firm that invests in outbound opportunities from China to the rest of the world.

James has an impressive background given his 10 year experience in venture capital, including almost 4 years at Sequoia Capital China in his formative years.  As many of you know, I am a big champion of the underdog and James’ story resonates with all of us that didn’t have all the advantages growing up.  Like many families growing up in the 1980’s in rural China, James’ family was poor.  But thorough grit, determination, hard work, education, and some luck, he managed to make it and has now launched an independent venture capital firm.

James shares his perspective on why China will continue to have a competitive advantage as the global manufacturing powerhouse for the world.

Without further ado, here is our conversation with James Liang.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Seamon Chan, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Palm Drive Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-growth companies with strong ideas and teams both in Silicon Valley and emerging tech centers around the world.  Along with his Co-Founder and Stanford classmate, Hendrick Lee, Seamon launched Palm Drive Capital in 2014 while still in their 20’s after being inspired by Warren Buffett who said that “his only regret was not starting Berkshire Hathway earlier in this career.”
 
Seamon takes us through his upbringing and early influences and shares his story about how he broke into the venture capital industry, culminating in launching Palm Drive Capital.  Since starting their firm, Palm Drive has successfully raised Funds I, II, and III and have had a number of early exits which he talks about in the podcast.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Gayatri Sarkar, Founder and General Partner of Advaita Capital, a venture capital firm she started in 2021.  Advaita’s mission is to put more women and minority entrepreneurs on a path to IPO leveraging their expertise in DEI and ESG in making mainstream tech investments.
 
Many of you may know Gayatri from her She-VC videos on youtube, a podcast she launched to quite simply get more women funded.  Through story telling and conversations, She-VC has featured women GPs, women LPs, and managers all around the world.
 
Gayatri is as unique as they come, wonderfully optimistic, and possesses the grit to become successful.
 
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Gayatri Sarkar.

Our guest for today’s podcast is David Chiang, Chief Investment Officer of Pritzker Family Foundations where he leads Ganesh Investments, the company that provides investment advisory services to the Funds and Partnerships group of PSP Partners and its affiliates. Ganesh Investments also provides investment advisory services to multiple Pritzker families and their foundations. Prior to joining Ganesh Investments in 2021, David was the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Idyllic Partners, an outsourced CIO firm. Previously, David served as Head of External Funds at Soros Fund Management, Managing Director at Wilshire Private Markets and has also worked for GIC.
 
David earned dual BA degrees in Business Economics and Psychology from Brown University and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School Management. He currently serves on the Board of The Opportunity Network, a non-profit focused on helping underrepresented students gain access to high quality education and career opportunities.

Without further ado, here is our conversation with David Chiang.

Our guest for today’s podcast is Shuo Chen who is a General Partner at Innovation Overflow Venture Capital, also known as IOVC, where she has invested in 60-plus seed-stage startups focused on the future of work.  Shuo is also on the faculty of UC Berkeley College of Engineering and Singularity University, where she has taught and mentored hundreds of students since 2010.  Shuo’s investments have been acquired by companies from Goldman Sachs to Instacart, and she's helped close deals with the likes of Amazon and NASA.
 
Shuo serves as one of 13 voting members on California's Mental Health Commission, and has served as Chair of the Board of Decode, an innovation community co-hosted with UC Berkeley and Stanford. Shuo previously worked at Goldman Sachs and PwC, and co-authored a book on financial regulations in 2019.
 
Without further ado, here is our conversation with Shuo Chen.