The Global Startup Movement - Startup Ecosystem Leaders, Global Entrepreneurship, and Emerging Market Innovation

W. Gyude Moore is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. He previously served as Liberia’s Minister of Public Works with oversight over the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure from December 2014 to January 2018. Prior to that role, Moore served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Head of the President’s Delivery Unit (PDU). As Head of the PDU, his team monitored progress and drove delivery of the Public Sector Investment Program of Liberia—a program of over $1 billion in road, power, port infrastructure, and social programs in Liberia after the civil war. As one of the President’s trusted advisors, he also played a crucial role in supporting President Sirleaf as Liberia responded to the West Africa Ebola outbreak and shaped its post-Ebola outlook At CGD, Moore’s research focus is around financing infrastructure in Africa and the changing landscape of development finance on the continent. His research tracks the channels of private sources of finance, the rise of China and its expanding role in Africa, and Africa’s response to these changes. This episode was recorded at PeaceTech Lab PeaceTech Lab works to reduce violent conflict using technology, media, and data to accelerate and scale peacebuilding efforts. An independent nonprofit, the Lab brings together engineers and activists, MBAs and conflict experts, social scientists, data scientists, and other innovators to put the right tools in the right hands to build peace.

On this episode we dive into our top 5 episode that we've ever done with leaders in the Canadian startup ecosystems. Featured guests include Mark Organ, Mark Maclean, Charles Boulanger, Rivers Corbett, and Marie Chevrier.

Julio Lavalle is the Cofounder of Poupa Certo and MiBolsillo, mobile apps that digitize financial behaviors and tasks to build a financially healthy generation with less human intervention and reduced transaction costs for both end users and financial institutions to bring 5 million people to the formal financial system in the next three years. Poupa Certo and MiBolsillo currently operate in Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, and Mexico with plans to expand into more Spanish-speaking countries. After working on business and economic research, Julio found in development economics a path to put learnings and skills in practice to generate actual impact, shaped by powerful experiences at local and international NGOs, and organizations such as The World Bank.

Samier Mansur is a social entrepreneur, innovator, and writer who is driven by ideas that can build a more just, peaceful, and better organized world. Samier is the founder of No Limit Generation, an organization that supports thousands of displaced and vulnerable children rise and thrive into their full potential. This initiative builds on his previous work in founding the "Safe Haven" for Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh in partnership with the award-winning JAAGO Foundation. The facility provides 500 Rohingya refugee children and orphans a safe space for learning, play, and healing every day. Samier is also the co-founder of LiveSafe, a revolutionary smartphone app that empowers millions of students, employees, and service men and women with the tools to keep themselves and their communities safe. He has as served various US Govt agencies and initiatives from global policymaking to human rights and security, and facilitation of trade and development programs in the rapidly developing economies. He has over 40 national and international publications on range of topics: from international relations and global policy; to humanitarian intervention, self-improvement, gender, among others. He has spoken on the TEDx stage on the topic of Pluralism and religious identity politics and inclusion; and continues to advise technology companies and global policy makers.

Eli David is the co-founder of StartupBlink.com, global map and research center of the global startup ecosystem. They work with dozens of governments and municipalities on the promotion and mapping of their ecosystems. StartupBlink was featured in hundreds of magazines around the world and has thousands of registered startups and release the World's most comprehensive startup ecosystem index ranking more than 1,000 cities and 100 countries. In 2010, Eli also co-founded Lingolearn with its current CEO and team. Lingolearn provides private lessons online for thousands of students in 16 languages. Eli is a digital nomad and lived in more than 20 countries in the last 4 years, constantly changing locations. Eli thinks Nomads and Startup owners have everything in common, in regard to initiating great changes and taking smart risks to achieve happiness.

This special installment of The Global Startup Movement podcast was recorded at the Africa Fintech Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with 4 tech ecosystem player including Adam Abate Cofounder & CEO of Apposit, Yemiru Chanyalew CEO of Moneta Technologies, Saad Sheikh Principal of Investments at TLG Capital, and Habtamu Tadesse Founder & CEO of both Zayride and Arifpay.

Kristin Rechberger is CEO of Dynamic Planet, a company that invests in conservation enterprises so that people and nature can thrive: wilderness protection (land and sea), sustainable tourism, food-energy-water security, and market transformation towards sustainable sourcing and consumption. As SVP Global Programs & Partnerships at the National Geographic Society, over 14 years Kristin helped lead worldwide growth of cable channels, corporate partnerships, and research, conservation, and exploration programs. Lived in Seoul, Korea as Luce Fellow; produced documentary films throughout Asia. Selected as a 2009 Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum; serves on the Advisory Council, and involved with oceans, the shared economy, and the future of global development. Serves on the boards of Pristine Seas, The Ocean Foundation, and Children’s Eyes on Earth. Public policy and documentary film degrees, Duke University; executive courses, Harvard and Yale.

Shailee Aldinofi is Director of Public Sector Solutions at ConsenSys, a global blockchain technology company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world. She served as Vice President of BanQu, a blockchain-based platform for supply chain transparency. Prior to joining the blockchain industry, Shailee spent 11 years leading USAID funded projects in financial inclusion, mobile money in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and 3 years in logistics and software development for US government projects.

Nizar Zakka is a Lebanese national and US permanent resident who was arrested by Iran in 2015, and was imprisoned until 2019 on charges of espionage for the United States. Zakka worked as an Internet freedom advocate and served as secretary general of the Arab ICT Organization in Washington, D.C.. On September 8, 2018, the person who had invited Nizar to visit Iran, Shahindokht Molaverdi, the top aide for citizenship rights to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, told the Associated Press that the Iranian government had not approved Nizar's imprisonment, and that "[w]e did all we could to stop this from happening, but we are seeing that we have failed to make a significant impact." She blamed a "complete miscoordination" between Iran's civilian government and its independent judiciary, adding that "actions by one branch can ignore or neutralize efforts by another branch". Despite the admission Iran was holding him against his will, Zakka remained a hostage in Iran until June 2019. With the sponsorship of his home country's president, General Michel Aoun, Zakka was released from Iran on June 11, 2019, and flew straight to Beirut.

Nathaniel Houghton is the Cofounder & President of the Congo Leadership Initiative where he provides leadership and entrepreneurship training to young people living in the Congo. Through his work he's seen the entrepreneurship ecosystem grow and evolve and believes the market is ready for venture style investing and returns. This is resulting in the Congo Leaders Venture Fund, aiming to invest early stage in top entrepreneurs in the Congo. Nate previously spent time as Director at Next Gen Venture Partners where he founded and led their innovation division providing support to their portfolio companies.

Nicholus Steward is the Cofounder of the eSwatini Bridge Project (SBP). The mission of the SBP is to promote, encourage, and facilitate the education and technology goals of the Kingdom of eSwatini. We aim to do this by providing resource and technology transfers which can be adapted to suit local conditions. SBP aims to promote the addition of up-to-date technology and strengthen science and technology education at all levels and its continual upgrading in line with developments in science and technology. Our hope is that homegrown Swazi talent will meet the ICT needs of eSwatini instead of having to import that skill set. In short, the Swazi Bridge Project’s main objective is to be a resource to the Swazi people for matters of connectivity, technology, and education.

Viola Llewellyn is the co-founder and President of Ovamba Solutions. Ovamba is an award winning African “FinTech” company that creates culturally attuned technologies to serve African SMEs with innovative Sharia compliant finance products, eCommerce, and logistics services to promote growth. Ovamba’s technology gives global accredited and institutional investors the opportunity to invest in the fast-growing African private sector.

Martin Sajon is Co-founder and CEO at Neuralys. He is an entrepreneur and cybersecurity professional with 12+ years of extensive experience across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the US. At Neuralys, Martin oversees the overall management of the company, including strategic product and business development efforts. He also works cross-functionally by analyzing core operational and business functions to help organizations reduce their risk. Before Neuralys, Martin founded a security consulting firm called ISNS focused on delivering cutting-edge penetration testing services across the continent to organizations such as Avery Dennison, Nokia, Glencore, Bunge, Oberthur Technologies, SGS, Coty, between others.

Adil Yalcin is the founder and CEO of Keshif, a software tool at the intersection of analytics, design, and engineering. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Maryland as a member of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. Through his research, he created the basis of Keshif as the next-generation data exploration platform. Adil's academic work in data visualization and analysis has been published and cited in various books, proceedings, and academic journals. At Keshif Adil leads technical, design, analytics, and consulting services alongside his cofounder Behar Xharra. Adil is passionate about providing refined, effective, principled solutions that lower barriers of complex tools and complex processes, i.e. solutions that are “as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

Akin Sawyerr is the co-founder of RocRemit, a blockchain remittance company, a director of Splash Mobile Money, a mobile payments company in Sierra Leone and the Africa Lead for Decred an open-source, Bitcoin fork that places emphasis on development funding, on-chain governance, and consensus mechanisms. Akin is a long time executive and entrepreneur operating in mobile money, remittances, and payments in sub Saharan Africa.

Sadaf (Safi) Lakhani is the Cofounder & CEO of Cognitiks a mission driven social enterprise. That works with organizations in emerging and high-risk markets to optimize social & environmental risk management and maximize social impact. Safi has 18+ years of experience working at the nexus of ESG, development and conflict for private firms and development agencies in countries around the world. Safi is a published thought leader and practitioner on social risk. She contributed to the World Development Report 2014 on Risk and Opportunity and World Bank flagship on Inclusion and Shared Prosperity and writes a regular blog for the Institute for Economics and Peace. She has worked for extractives, technology, coffee and consumer goods companies globally, managing social risk and community outreach as well as for the United Nations, World Bank, United States Institute of Peace and European Commission managing programs and policy on fragile and conflict contexts.

KGB (Kevin Gordon Barrow) is the Founder & CEO of Mark Labs, a software company which helps organizations effectively manage the risk associated with funding social impact projects. He is a serial social entrepreneur, having worked on startups dealing with education, environmental protection, campus safety, mobile health, and rural broadband access. Prior to embracing his inner social entrepreneur, KGB earned his stripes in the fields of law (GE), banking (ABN AMBRO), and management consulting (Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton). KGB completed his higher education in the UK earning an Honours Law Degree from Durham and an MBA from Oxford. He is an an avid reader, lover of Sufi poetry, and an aspiring surfer.

Moe Odele is a cofounding parnter at Vazi Legal and the founder of the widely popular community, Scale My Hustle. Moe is an international attorney experienced in Business and human rights, Innovative financing, Impact Investing, Gender & inclusive finance, ESG Advisory (Due diligence & Intergration), Private Equity and Venture Capital, FinTech, Startup advisory, and Social entrepreneurship. She has worked with entrepreneurs, funds, family offices and foundations who are dedicated to solving some of the most pressing challenges in emerging markets.

Andrew Mack is the Founder and CEO of Agromovil, an app-based platform that helps make the match between producers, transporters and off-takers. It allows farmers to match with the transport they need, when they need it and to find buyers that use the platform (called the MATCH). It enables transporters to build optimized routes picking up from various small farmers, making transport more efficient and profitable, and getting crops to market when needed (the BATCH). And, it enables all parties to pay on the platform, avoiding the need to take large amounts of cash to the field, making transactions safer and helping bring small farmers into the banking system and building credit histories (the PAY). Today some 30% of crops in the global south that are harvested never make it to market -- they're lost, stolen, never picked up or arrive too late to be used. With initial support from Toyota and Carnegie Mellon, Agromovil is creating an app-based platform that will change that, bringing together micro insurance, cellphone banking and ride-hailing technologies (like Lyft) to get more food, and fresher food, to hungry tables around the world.

Rebecca Enonchong is founder and Chief Executive Officer of AppsTech, a leading global provider of enterprise application solutions. She is also cofounder of I/O Spaces, an inclusive coworking space in the Washington DC metro area. She is Board Chair of Afrilabs, a Pan-African network of over 150 innovation centers supporting over 500,000 entrepreneurs in Africa. She chairs ActivSpaces (African Center for Technology Innovation and Ventures) supporting entrepreneurs from two tech hubs in Cameroon. She also sits on the board of Venture Capital for Africa (VC4Africa), of Salesforce.org, the African Media Initiative, Eneza Education and iamtheCODE. She is cofounder of Cameroon Angels Network and cofounder and Vice-President of African Business Angels Network. Ms. Enonchong currently serves as a mentor/advisor to several technology startups.

Host Andrew Berkowitz unveils our new studio at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. Each week from here on out will feature in person interviews with leaders in business and entrepreneurship in frontier and emerging markets. Each month will feature a live event panel session at USIP. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter to catch all of our livestreams and new video content.

Idriss Al Rifai is the founder of Fetchr. Ecommerce in the Middle East is still nascent – local and international brands have a challenging time navigating the market in which inefficient processes and the lack of post addresses lead to long delivery times and high return rates. Fetchr (formerly, MENA360) provides businesses a solution for entering the ecommerce space in the region and for reaching customers via their mobile devices. On this episode you'll learn: What are differences between the GCC countries and the North Africa ecosystem? How developed is Ecommerce in the Middle east? What platforms are Ecommerce happening on in the region?

Lanre Akinlagun is the Founder & CEO Drinks.ng, a Lagos, Nigeria based e-commerce company specializing in drinks with an extensive range of beverages comprising both alcohol and soft drinks. Before starting Drinks.ng, Lanre was an early executive at Iroko, where he worked alongside Jason Njoku before discovering the problem of finding wholesale liquor in Lagos. Trying to purchase bulk liquor at an open air market on Lagos Island is what inspired Lanre to leave to start Drinks.ng. On this episode you'll learn: Why is Nigeria's e-commerce market so fragmented? How mature is the e-commerce ecosystem in Nigeria What other African markets does Lanre view as similar to the Nigerian market?

Eric Osiakwan is the Managing Partner of Chanzo Capital, a growth capital firm investing both capital and mentoring in high-tech startups and scaleups in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa (http://www.kingsofafrica.info/ (KINGS)) – these countries make up the "KINGS" of Africa's digital economy. Eric is a serial Entrepreneur and Investor with 15+ years of ICT industry leadership across Africa and the world. He has worked in 32 African countries setting up ISPs, ISPAs, IXPs and high-tech startups. He co-founded Angel Africa List, Angel Fair Africa and Chanzo Capital. On this episode you'll learn: -What African countries are catching up to the big 5 KINGS markets? -How does ICT infrastructure in North Africa and Subsaharan Africa compare? -What are the challenges regarding last mile internet infrastructure across the African continent?

Andile Masuku is a former Zimbabwean broadcaster and entrepreneur based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Andile produces a portfolio of popular audio podcasts covering tech and innovation on the African continent— including the African Tech Round-up, the African Tech Conversations series, and #AndilesTake , as well as developing and executing content strategy and tactical media plays for leading companies. He also writes a weekly syndicated tech column for Business Report and African Independent. Dotun Oloworopoku is a General Partner at Ventures Platform. He is also the Managing Partner at Starta, a platform that makes it easier to build, discover and track high growth businesses in Africa. He is the founder of Yhello Technologies (previously meals.co.uk) an on-demand food delivery platform in the UK. He exited the business after successfully partnering with Just-eat.co.uk, the no.1 food ordering platform in Europe. Dotun advises funded startups such as YC-backed Flutterwave on growth marketing, helping them build a growth team that can execute. Dotun is an active mentor at other accelerator programmes including Ignite in the UK, and the World’s Bank XL Africa programme. On this episode you'll learn: -What are the best channels to reach a consumer audience for audio content in Africa? -Who will drive the last mile internet infrastructure in the least developed countries in Africa? -What countries are the most ahead in terms of universal internet penetration?

On this episode we dive into our top 5 episode that we've ever done with leaders in the African startup ecosystems. Featured guests include Eghosa Omoigui, Zekarias Amsalu, Johnni Kjelsgaard, Osarumen Osamuyi, Konstantin Tsanis.

Alex Barrera is the CEO at The Aleph Report (thealeph.com) where he writes about the strategic implications of cutting-edge technology and help companies understand how to survive the future. Prior to Aleph, Alex cofounded two major startup accelerators, tech.eu, and Press42. He is a regular mentor at several accelerators worldwide, and closely works with a couple of international conferences helping run their startup competitions and pitching training. I'm also an international speaker in multiple conferences, including keynote speaker at several TEDx Events, The Economist Summits or Global Shaper by WEF. On this episode you'll learn: What technology does Alex think will cause the most change over the coming years? Why did Alex start spending the majority of his time traveling to Eastern European startup ecosystems Why is the US dominance in global startups fading?

Dr. Mark Lutter is Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Innovative Governance Research, a nonprofit creating the ecosystem for charter cities. Prior to launching the Center for Innovative Governance Research, he was Lead Economist for NeWAY Capital, an asset management firm which made early stage investments in charter cities. During graduate school, he consulted on several new city projects and special economic zones. He has a PhD in economics from George Mason University where his research focused on charter cities. He has been published in several newspapers and magazines including CityAM, the Daily Caller, and Cato Unbound. On this episode you'll learn: -What's the difference between a special economic zone and a charter city? -Where in the world can the charter city model have the most impact? -What does Mark think of China's $4 Trillion commitment to their Belt Road Initiative?

Sajith Pai is a Director at Blume Ventures, one of India’s leading early-stage venture firms with $150M under management. After a two-decade long stint in Media & Entertainment, much of it in The Times of India Group, across Strategy & Corp Dev roles, Sajith moved to Blume Ventures in 2018. At Blume, Sajith focuses on supporting their investments in the Media, EdTech, Commerce space, in addition to helping build up the Research function. On this episode you'll learn: What does the total funding funnel look like for Indian startups? What are the differences between India1, India2, and India3 and why has almost all VC gone into India1 focused startups? How has the Indian ecosystem evolved over the past 5 years?

Uwem Uwemakpan is the Programme Manager for the Tony Elumelu Foundation, one of the largest Pan-African Entrepreneurship Programs which convenes the biggest gathering of African Entrepreneurs yearly. Uwem is also the Lagos Chapter Director of Silicon Valley based Startup Grind and manages the community team and initiatives. He drives 'The Afropreneur Network', an initiative dedicated to growing the African Entrepreneur and also sits on the 2018 Advisory Board of the South By Southwest (SXSW) Accelerator, Injini (Africa's EdTech Incubator), and the Lagos ambassador for Startupbootcamp. He believes entrepreneurship is key to Africa's development and as such invests his time and resources in initiatives that help the African Entrepreneur grow. On this episode you'll learn: Besides fintech, what sectors do Uwem think are most ripe for disruption in Nigeria? What can the nonprofit sector do better in catalyzing development in Africa? Why is it important for Africa to move up the value chain and decrease the amount of products it imports?

Andrew Rowan is the Author of Startup Vietnam, an American entrepreneur, and an Entrepreneur in Residence with the Swiss Entrepreneurship Program, currently living in Peru. Andrew has previously lived in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for one year where he worked as a tech consultant and plunged into Vietnam’s startup scene. As Director of GKTA Group, he established a partnership with the €11 million ($13.1 million) Finland-Vietnam Innovation Partnership Program (IPP), which accelerates growth for startups originating in Vietnam and is supported by the Governments of Vietnam and Finland until 2018. Andrew regularly collaborates on innovation initiatives in Vietnam with the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, as well as with Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). On this episode you'll learn: What are the Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang ecosystems like? Why is Vietnam one of Southeast Asia's fastest growing economies? What do American entrepreneurs need to know in order to successfully do business in Vietnam

Xiaochen Zhang is the Cofounder and President of Fintech4good and brings more than 16 years of thought leadership and global experience to build impactful solutions and enable innovative ideas in North America, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. FinTech4Good introduces cutting edge fintech and blockchain solutions to emerging markets through incubation, acceleration and investment. In working with partners, FinTech4Good launched Insurance Blockchain Lab, Inclusive Finance Blockchain Lab, and Smart City Blockchain Lab. He also serves as a founding partner of New Development Ventures, on the Crowdfunding Professional Association Board of Directors and UN ESCAP Digital Economy Task Force. Xiaochen advised government agencies and multinational organizations on innovative finance in positions at the World Bank, United Nations, and other international partnership platforms. On this episode you'll learn: -What the current state of the blockchain startup ecosystem in China? -What country's blockchain ecosystems are advancing the quickest? -How is blockchain being used to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?

Kari Gordon is the Executive Director of Startup Calgary. She is a champion of the startup community, bringing together diverse people, skills, and experiences to foster innovation. She has been instrumental in leading Alberta to transform economic downturn into entrepreneurial opportunities. Under Kari’s leadership, Startup Calgary became a founding member of the Calgary Innovation Coalition, a collective of 17 organizations representing the innovation community to the Alberta government. Hannah Cree is the co-founder of CMNGD (COMMONGOOD) and a leading Alberta advocate for social enterprise and compassionate business innovation. In her work, Hannah combines experience in entrepreneurship, finances and marketing with a passion for ending poverty and homelessness in Canada. On this episode you'll learn: How should Social Good startups direct their capital raising efforts? What sectors is Calgary gaining traction in their startup ecosystem What does the angel and VC ecosystem look like in Calgary?

Troy Vosseller is the Co-Founder of gener8tor, A Concierge Startup Accelerator and has run accelerators in partnership with Allianz, American Family Insurance, and more. His first company was a dorm room t-shirt brand, Sconnie Nation (www.sconnie.com). That has since spawned multiple companies including Sconnie Beer (www.sconniebeer.com) and SCONNIEBAR (www.sconniebar.com). On this episode you'll learn: -How does gener8tor's accelerator for musicians measure success? -At what stage does Troy think it's best for a startup to establish a board? -What international market excites Troy the most outside of the US?

Osarumen Osamuyi is the author of the Subtext, an Entrepreneur in Residence at Africa's Talking labs in Nairobi, and a great thinker in Africa's Tech Community. He was previously based in Lagos and served as head of investment and ecosystem research at Ventures Platform a leading source of capital, capacity building, support and advocacy for entrepreneurs across Africa. He started his foray into tech with TechCabal. On this episode you'll learn: -Is there enough quality deal flow for the incoming venture capital funds to invest in? -What's the state of consumer-facing tech on the continent? -Should startups change their approach in working with banks?

Kelly Lapierre is the cofounder and partner at Venture Catalysts, a non-profit with the mission of building an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem in Detroit through strategic large scale entrepreneurship events and targeted growth programs. We provide leadership, training, and mentorship for founders and ecosystem leaders. Kelly has been an active ecosystem builder in Detroit since moving back in 2013. On this episode you'll learn: You moved back to Detroit in 2013 right as the city was declaring bankruptcy, how did the startup community evolved throughout those years? What kind of work is being done to connect the Ann Arbor and Detroit ecosystems? Anything in particular that's worked well or lessons on what hasn't worked? What sectors present the biggest opportunity for startups in Detroit?

Yariv Lotan is the Head of Strategic Sector Development for Startup Nation Central. Start-Up Nation Central is an independent non-profit that builds bridges for Israeli innovation. They connect business, government, and NGO leaders from around the world with Israeli innovation, offering Israeli innovators access to high-potential and previously inaccessible markets, through highly customized business engagements, and through Start-Up Nation Finder – an easy to use, up-to-date, free online platform for discovering and connecting with the thousands of relevant innovators. Yariv previously headed the primary private-equity investment arm of a major insurance group in Israel where he Invested $100m in private-equity, venture-capital and real-estate. On this episode you'll learn: -What sectors are Israel leading and where are their gaps in the ecosystem? -What countries have been most active in investing in the Israeli ecosystem? -What are the other ecosystems besides Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that are growing startup hubs in the country?

Brian Park is a startup evangelist, advisor, and angel investor. He is the director for Startup Grind DC and Managing Director at the SparkLabs Cyber+Blockchain (formerly Fishbowl Labs), which is the premiere startup accelerator in the Washington DC area. He was also formerly the global COO of Startup Grind, which is the one of the largest hi-tech startup communities in the world with over 1,000,000 startup entrepreneurs in 600 cities. He has been featured in Forbes as “17 Top Business Gurus to Follow on Snapchat” and other publications such as TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Politico, and Washington Business Journal. On this episode you'll learn: -How did Fishbowl Labs originally get started? -What similarities do the Cyber and Blockchain industries share? -Why DC hasn't emerged as a top startup ecosystem on a global scale?

Leland Rice is the co-founder and CEO of Dedalus Global, an investment advisory firm focusing on emerging markets and emerging technologies. Chairment of the African Fintech Summit, is a global initiative to bring the issues, entrepreneurs, and opportunities revolutionizing finance in Africa to the world’s stage. This bi-annual event occurs each April in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF, and each November in a different African city. On this episode you'll learn: -How has the African Fintech Landscape evolved in the past year? -What does Leland think about African startups going to SE Asia or Latin America? -How is data aggregation creating opportunities for Africa's SMEs?

Toni Eberhart serves as Executive Director for Alabama’s leading non-profit ideation accelerator, Urban Engine. Toni's past achievements focus on economic impact primarily within the Southeast Region of the United States spanning across diverse industries such as medicine, energy infrastructure, higher education, and federal program & policy operations. Toni is known as a distinguished leader in the evolution of robust and dynamic innovation ecosystems, often advocating for burgeoning business & technology communities in the State of Alabama. On this episode you'll learn: -What are the advantages and disadvantages of structuring your local innovation hub as a 501c3 -What are Urban Engine's successes for other small town ecosystems to replicate? -What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Huntsville startup ecosystem

Scott Resnick is a founder and Entrepreneur in Residence of StartingBlock Madison, a 50,000 sq foot entrepreneurial hub opened in 2018. StartingBlock connects startups to corporate partners clustered in the healthcare, manufacturing, insurance and gaming industries, and provides links to mentors and capital partners. Scott is also the cofounder of Hardin Design & Development, a startup focused on full cycle software development and enterprise web creation. He currently is the company's Chief Operating Officer. Headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, he grew the company to an eight figure revenue. On this episode you'll learn: -How did the founding team of StartingBlock Madison put the pieces together to secure funding? -What metrics besides venture capital can be used to gauge a startup ecosystems health? -What are the biggest strengths of the Madison Startup Ecosystem?

Cédric Giorgi is the Director of Experience Design for SIGFOX, who’s building a global LPWAN wireless network for the Internet of Things. Before that, Cédric was the co-founder of Cookening, founded in 2012 and sold in 2015, a global marketplace that brings locals with foreigners during home cooked meals. Cédric worked at several startups during his early years of his carreer: he was Europe Director for Seesmic and Marketing Director for Goojet/Scoop.it. Cédric has been highly involved in the startup ecosystem since 2009, as Co-Editor and Conference Organizer for Techcrunch France in 2010/2011, curator and host of LeWeb Brands Track between 2011 and 2014. He's since 2014 co-founder of NYC-based event La French Touch Conference. On this episode you'll learn: -How has Cedric made the French startuper Facebook group so successful? -Why has Toulouse has become a hotbed for IOT startups -Why is venture capital so concentrated in Paris?