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The Top Global VC Podcast for Founders & Funders
10M+
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1M+
Impressions
Top 5%
Global VC Podcast
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Global Community
Billion Dollar Moves is the first and largest traveling venture capital podcast-meets-live show, taking you inside the boardrooms and behind the scenes with unicorn founders, funders, and the power players shaping the future.
Filmed live across global innovation hubs—from Silicon Valley to Singapore—it’s where capital meets conviction, and the conversations catalyze action.
Trusted by governments, family offices, and institutional investors, Billion Dollar Moves doesn’t just talk about the future—it helps build it.
Lead, build, and invest better.
Join us as we hit the streets globally to uncover billion dollar ventures of unicorn founders & funders.
In venture, every move can make—or break—a billion-dollar outcome.
Hosted by Sarah Chen-Spellings, award-winning entrepreneur, investor, and venture insider, Billion Dollar Moves pulls back the curtain on the strategies, stumbles, and breakout moments that define the world’s most iconic companies.
From boardroom power plays to investor backchannels, you’ll hear the untold stories behind iconic companies like YouTube, Canva, and Vimeo, and go inside the minds of those moving capital at firms like Sequoia, Lightspeed, and beyond.
Whether you’re chasing your first $10M—or your next billion—this show is your front-row seat to how the smartest founders and funders win. Think raw, unfiltered, no-BS insight—designed to help you move faster, smarter, and bolder.
Billion Dollar Moves is proud to be part of the Hubspot Podcast Network with 10 million downloads a month as a group.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley’s inner circle—this is the untold story behind one of tech’s most trusted capital stewards. In this episode, we sit down with Mike Anders, Partner at ICONIQ, the quiet powerhouse managing over $80B for tech’s most iconic names.
Mike opens up about his activist roots, Wall Street disillusionment, and the journey to building a purpose-driven financial empire. We go behind the curtain of ICONIQ’s rise, the venture bets that paid off, the AI wave, and why collaborative philanthropy is their next big frontier.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro
02:11 – Roots & Activism: Academic upbringing and activist parents; “Start outside politics”
04:25 – Disillusionment & Reinvention: donor-advised funds (DAFs), discovering purpose in philanthropy & the pivotal first coffee with Divesh Makan
07:37 – Building ICONIQ: From Alibaba to enterprise software to data centers; the power of collective wisdom from founder clients
15:09 – Market, AI, & Culture: Surviving financial crises and market cycles; ICONIQ’s bet on AI; reflections on culture
26:31 – The Shift to Impact: The genesis of ICONIQ Impact and the CoLab model
31:06 – The Cost & The Legacy: Leadership, humility, and enduring values
READ MORE:
ICONIQ Impact Half a Billion Report
Michael Anders | Partner, ICONIQ
Michael Anders is a founding partner of ICONIQ, a global investment firm that channels ideas, talent, and capital to initiatives that advance society. Michael is also the founder and Chairman of ICONIQ Impact, which convenes ICONIQ’s extraordinary community of families, founders, and organizations to catalyze collaborative philanthropy for giving at scale.
To-date, ICONIQ Impact has advised on nearly $600M in grants, tackling the world’s most urgent challenges, including climate change, education and economic mobility, ocean health and other impact areas.
FOLLOW MIKE:
LinkedIn | Instagram | X/Twitter
Matti Navellou | Head of ICONIQ Impact, ICONIQ
Matti Navellou is the Head of ICONIQ Impact, ICONIQ’s platform for collaborative philanthropy, which convenes ICONIQ’s extraordinary community of families, founders, and organizations to catalyze collaborative philanthropy for giving at scale.
To-date, ICONIQ Impact has advised on nearly $900M in grants, tackling the world’s most urgent challenges, including climate change, mental health, women’s health and rights, refugee resettlement and poverty relief. Across her career, Matti has developed and launched several global human rights campaigns, including most recently at UNICEF HQ in New York, leading public advocacy campaigns for child rights.
FOLLOW MATTI:
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PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://billiondollarmoves.com
Watch on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/sarahchenglobal
Join the community: https://sarah-chen.ck.page/billiondollarmoves
FOLLOW SARAH:
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal
Instagram: https://instagram.com/sarahchenglobal
X/Twitter: https://x.com/sarahchenglobal
In venture, every move can make—or break—a billion-dollar outcome.
In venture, every move can make—or break—a billion-dollar outcome.
Panu Maulaheimo
- "We've worked with Sarah & her team to promote investing in and from Helsinki, leveraging ad spots and a sponsored series of episodes showcasing our nation's best unicorn founders and funders. Sarah's compelling storytelling combined with her targeted reach has resulted in an oversubscribed program for international investors. This was our second year working with her, and we are excited to continue working with her."
Monsha’at
- "Sarah Chen-Spellings brought her signature energy and commanding presence to Biban 2024, making her the ideal host and moderator alongside the Shark, Robert Herjavec. Her deep insights into investing in innovation and women-led ventures resonated powerfully with our audience of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and global investors. With her polished media expertise and natural ability to engage across cultures, she elevated the event, ensuring impactful takeaways and amplifying our reach across platforms. We were honored to have a globally renowned name join our stage, and we are excited to continue to work with her to drive entrepreneurship in our country and beyond."
Ann Cairns
- "We at Mastercard are delighted to be working with Beyond the Billion to address the massive gender venture funding gap holding women innovators back. Too much of our world was designed without women in mind and without women involved. Shelly, Sarah, and their team have done an excellent job of raising awareness about this issue and creating a network of VCs pledged to do more by investing in female-founded startups to address the problem. Working with our team, they seamlessly created an impactful dialogue based on Mastercard's gender balance narrative."
Why Our Sponsors Love Working With Us
This show is about unfiltered conversations about success, failure, fear and courage, in the pursuit of the next big thing in tech and venture.
From boardroom power plays to investor backchannels, you’ll hear the untold stories behind iconic companies like YouTube, Canva, and Vimeo, and go inside the minds of those moving capital at firms like Sequoia, Lightspeed, and beyond.
Whether you’re chasing your first $10M—or your next billion—this show is your front-row seat to how the smartest founders and funders win. Think raw, unfiltered, no-BS insight—designed to help you move faster, smarter, and bolder.
This isn’t just another business podcast. This is your billion-dollar playbook.
Your front-row seat to how the smartest founders and funders win. Think raw, unfiltered,no-BS insight—designed to help you move faster, smarter, and bolder.
Disclaimer
This podcast is an expression of personal opinion and does not represent the opinion of the host Sarah Chen-Spellings (SCS) as an investor personally, her firm Beyond The Billion (BTB) or any company discussed. These discussions are for informational purposes only, including any mention of securities or venture funds; and does not constitute any investment, legal, tax advice. SCS or BTB may hold currently, or in the future, direct or indirect interests in the featured companies or funds. No guarantee of any kind is implied or possible where projections of future conditions are attempted.