Backed by
The Top Global Venture & Business Podcast
for Founders & Funders
10M+
Monthly Reach
1M+
Impressions
Top 5%
Global VC Podcast
50k+
Global Community
Conversations with billionaires, unicorn founders, and funders.
Hosted by Sarah Chen-Spellings, Billion Dollar Moves examines how enduring companies — and the capital behind them — are built. 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.
Conversations with billionaires, unicorn founders, and the world’s leading funders.
Hosted by Sarah Chen-Spellings, a global investor and entrepreneur, Billion Dollar Moves examines how enduring companies — and the capital behind them — are built.
Through long-form conversations, the show explores decision-making under uncertainty, capital allocation, and the inflection points that shape category-defining businesses. From early platform backstories to allocator frameworks used across private markets, the focus is on judgment, incentives, and long-term value creation — beyond headlines and hype.
New episodes weekly.
Built for those who take the long view.
Billion Dollar Moves is proud to be part of the Hubspot Podcast Network with 10 million downloads a month as a group.
In this rare conversation, Jim Sorenson breaks down what happens after liquidity—when building a company turns into building systems of capital.
We start with the moment everything nearly fell apart: losing $1M a month during the dot-com crash, and the unexpected pivot that transformed Sorenson Communications into a near $1B exit—by aligning technology with regulation and real, underserved demand.
From there, Jim unpacks how that experience reshaped his approach to investing.
From deploying early, risk-tolerant capital through Program-Related Investments (PRIs)…
to ultimately rethinking an entire foundation—aligning 100% of its assets toward both financial returns and long-term impact.
This isn’t a conversation about philanthropy.
It’s about how sophisticated capital actually works—where risk is priced, how systems scale, and why impact and alpha aren’t opposites.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Intro
01:30 – Sorenson Communications
05:30 – Pivoting Under Pressure
09:20 – An Overlooked Community
14:50 – Scale & Capital Design
21:30 – The Mechanics of PRI
27:05 – The 95% Transition
38:40 – ESG & Fiduciary Duty
45:30 – Stewardship After Liquidity
About Jim Sorenson
James Lee Sorenson (Jim) serves as chairman of the Sorenson Impact Foundation, which funds sustainable, scalable endeavors that maximize positive impact on the lives and societies they touch. Sorenson endowed the Sorenson Impact Center at the University of Utah. Sorenson is also Chairman of the Board of Village Capital and a member of the National Advisory Board of Impact Investing. Sorenson was instrumental in developing several new industry categories, including digital compression software that helped usher in the online video revolution at Sorenson Media, where he serves as Chairman of the Board and video relay services which transformed opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing individuals through Sorenson Communications. Jim has served on many community boards, including Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, University Venture Fund, Art Works for Kids, Gallaudet University, and the Utah Sports Commission.
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Billion Dollar Moves Podcast | The Top Global Venture & Business Podcast for Founders & Funders | Backed by HubSpot Podcast Network
Conversations with billionaires, unicorn founders, and the world’s leading funders.
Hosted by Sarah Chen-Spellings, Billion Dollar Moves examines how enduring companies — and the capital behind them — are built.
Through long-form conversations, the show explores decision-making under uncertainty, capital allocation, and the inflection points that shape category-defining businesses. From early platform backstories to allocator frameworks used across private markets, the focus is on judgment, incentives, and long-term value creation — beyond headlines and hype.
New episodes weekly.
Built for those who take the long view.
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:
https://linkedin.com/in/sarahchenglobal
https://instagram.com/sarahchenglobal
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.