In this interview, we meet Aly Madhavji (Vancouver), the Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund which invests in and venture builds top-tier startups. He shares how the lockdown gave new opportunities to startups in the Health sector and the example of an affordable insurance solution for self-employed and freelancers in the US. At the same time, Aly mentions that some startup founders who experienced too much pressure had to part ways. He also talks about the initiative the fund started of connecting students with startups. In less than a month, there were over 600 matches done and the number continues to grow. Some students say that they learnt more in two days than in the last six months. Aly notes that the main criteria for choosing the students is not in what they know already but in their passion to learn. He also talks about the report on how blockchain can alleviate poverty, the fund is preparing for the United Nations.  

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868  

About the Guest 

Aly Madhavji 穆亚霖 is the Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund which invests in and venture builds top-tier startups. He is a Limited Partner on Loyal VC. Aly consults organizations on emerging technologies such as INSEAD and the UN on solutions to help alleviate poverty. He is a Senior Blockchain Fellow at INSEAD and was recognized as a “Blockchain 100” Global Leader by Lattice80. He is an internationally acclaimed author, publishing three books and a monthly columnist for the leading blockchain magazine. Aly has served on various advisory boards including the University of Toronto’s Governing Council, which manages a $2.5B budget. He is a mentor with Chinaccelerator, an elite accelerator program operated by the venture fund SOSV with $500M+ AUM and the Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX). Aly holds a Master of Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar from Tsinghua University (清华大学), a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD (Singapore and France), and a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Toronto.  

http://blockchainff.com/   

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alymadhavji/ 

Twitter: @BlockchainFF https://twitter.com/BlockchainFF 

Twitter: @aly_madhavji https://twitter.com/aly_madhavji   

Internship application: http://rockstar.blockchainff.com/

The Underwing health coverage product from Jauntin: http://underwing.co/

Startups Seeking Investment: http://investment.blockchainff.com/

Startups Seeking to join the highly coveted Venture Program: https://succeed.blockchainff.com/

About the Host  

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com. She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.  

https://julia.altercontacts.org 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/