Get from Underestimated to Iconic with Billion Dollar Moves™
Billion Dollar Moves™ with Sarah Chen-Spellings

Season 2

June 8, 2023

Investing with Penny Pritzker and Building a Robust Venture & Growth Practice with Momei Qu, MD, PSP Partners

This week I am so pumped to be speaking with Momei Qu, Managing Director of PSP Growth, where she leads PSP’s venture capital and growth equity initiative, working closely with the esteemed Penny Pritzker, former United Stat…
Guest: Momei Qu
June 1, 2023

After the Exit: Finding and Decoupling Your Identity from your Firm/Startup

This week's Billion Dollar Bite features the big question: Who am I beyond the company I built? This has become a theme that has emerged in so many of my conversations with both founders and funders at the helm of thei…
May 26, 2023

Scaling to $2 Billion, backed by Oprah, Katy Perry to solve the Global Food Waste Issue: a Conversation with James Rogers, Founder & CEO, Apeel Sciences

Our next guest is tackling the food waste problem by applying what he and his team have learned from nature. They created a plant-based protective coating that can make fruits and vegetables last longer. When the average hou…
Guest: James Rogers
May 18, 2023

Shocking Tips to Lead and Build Influence with Behavioral Expert, Phill Agnew

What’s the secret to becoming more likable and influential as a leader? How do we actually build and scale by appealing to our consumers in a sustainable way? Why are we more likely to eat an imperfect cookie? This week’s…
Guest: Phill Agnew
May 11, 2023

Unleashing AI —Too Soon? with VC Martina Welkhoff, WXR Fund

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. And with it, a whole conversation surrounding AI, it’s opportunities and yes perils. Well, to go de…
May 4, 2023

Battling Disinformation while Young, Black and Female with Phumzile Van Damme, Former MP, South Africa

“It takes years to build a reputation and minutes to ruin it.” Many would recall the scandal of Bell Pottinger: the reputation-laundering firm that ruined its own reputation. One of the most notorious PR firms in histo…
April 27, 2023

What Makes A Billion Dollar Founder? According to Cathy Gao, Sapphire Ventures & Jack Smith, sold Vungle for $780M

Between the SVB collapse (and now First Republic Bank on the edge, with stock now down 95% for the year to date!), ChatGPT taking over and the "SAAS-cre", where valuations of Software-As-A-Service companies have taken a dive…
Guests: Cathy Gao , Jack Smith
April 20, 2023

Leveraging Community to Invest in the Future with VC Jenny Fielding, Everywhere Ventures

Founder turned Funder, from Head of Digital Ventures of the BBC to Managing Director of Techstars, to now Managing Partner of Everywhere Ventures with 250 portfolio companies and counting, Jenny Fielding is the ultimate comm…
April 13, 2023

You Are What You Risk—Unpacking the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse & Gray Rhino with Global Best-Selling Author & Risk Expert Michele Wucker

Today’s episode is by no means a full breakdown of what happened, but answers this one question : “Was this truly a Black Swan event? as Nassim Taleb explains it or really, a Gray Rhino, as Best-Selling Author, my friend …
April 6, 2023

Inside a Billionaire's Mind: Nirvana Chaudhary—Making Your Mark, The Teacher Appears When The Student Is Ready, Selling 3 Billion Noodle Packets Yearly

We’re bringing our next billionaire on Billion Dollar Moves; this time from Nepal, my friend Nirvana Chaudhary who is at the helm of Nepal’s first and only company listed on the Forbes list of Billionaires since 2015, valued…
March 30, 2023

From Lab to Table: The Startup Founder Revolutionizing the Seafood Industry with Sandhya Sriram, Shiok Meats

What does it take to sell and execute on what feels like an impossible vision? This, is the task of a stem-cell scientist turned founder who is tapping into the multi-billion opportunity to create lab-grown crustacean mea…
March 23, 2023

Getting Users Hooked & Regaining Control of Your Attention with Nir Eyal, WSJ Best-Selling Author of 'Hooked' & 'Indistractable'

A ping on your phone takes you out of a conversation with a friend. At the office, a colleague interrupts your work on a project. At home, screens intrude on time with your partner. Your goals don’t get done and it feels …
Guest: Nir Eyal
March 15, 2023

"Let's Take Our Chips Off The Table"—Riding the Venture Downcycle: Investing in Southeast Asia with Dmitry Levit, Cento Ventures (Part 2)

In today's Billion Dollar Moves, we bust some myths about Southeast Asia's VC activity and the narratives driving the expansion seen in the region. The key question: will the momentum survive this downcycle? I chat with D…
Guest: Dmitry Levit
March 13, 2023

"Narratives Driving Substance" —Riding the Venture Downcycle: Investing in Southeast Asia with Dmitry Levit, Cento Ventures (Part 1)

In today's Billion Dollar Moves, we bust some myths about Southeast Asia's VC activity and the narratives driving the expansion seen in the region. The key question: will the momentum survive this downcycle? I chat with D…
Guest: Dmitry Levit
Feb. 28, 2023

"When The S**t Hits The Fan"—Scaling to a $4.2 Bn Global Business with Nicole Sahin, G-P (Globalization Partners)

While scaling globally seems often to be part of the 'Billion Dollar Plan', it is hardly as simple as it is thought to be. Nicole Sahin who founded and scaled G-P, a global PEO leader from an idea to over $4Bn in value chats…
Guest: Nicole Sahin
Feb. 19, 2023

Multi-Billion Firms' Chief Investors, CPP Investments, CVC Capital Partners, EPF, CD&R on Actually Aligning Profit & Purpose in Private Equity — Davos Takeaway 3 {BONUS}

Private Equity has a tremendous role to play in the real economy: with about $10Trillion assets under management, robust returns relative to public market measures, a reach that touches the lives of many (some say 1/3, 2/3 o…
Feb. 7, 2023

Former Unilever MD, Silvia Wiesner on Quiet Quitting, Paranoia of Productivity - Davos Takeaway 2 {BONUS}

Quiet quitting, a recession looming, a polycrisis declared at Davos 2023 — how can leaders navigate this uncertainty? Silvia Wiesner, former Managing Director at Unilever who was with me in Davos joins me to weigh in on t…
Feb. 2, 2023

Global CEO of LEGO, Deloitte & Chair of Henry Schein debate the Non-Political Company Leader - Davos Takeaway 1 {BONUS}

The 'non-political' company leader. In 2020/2021, we saw feathers ruffled when leaders like those from Google, Coinbase declared certain "political activism" was a distraction. Employees walked out since of course, in many…
Jan. 27, 2023

"To Fail in Such A Public Way"—The Cost of Influence & Billion Dollar Ambitions with Vivy Yusof, FV Group

Social media platforms and creator-focused startups haven’t looked too hot coming into 2023, with companies like Meta, Snapchat waging of layoffs along with the rest of the tech industry. BUT the creator and influencer econo…
Guest: Vivy Yusof
Jan. 16, 2023

Diverse Hires ≠ Diverse Goals: MLK Special with Sonia Thompson

Data shows that building with diversity in mind just makes business sense. Yet, we’ve not moved the dial nearly enough: bringing it to our investment world, as of Sep 2021 according to Knight Research only 1.4% of US AUM …
Jan. 12, 2023

Meta's Global Head of Social Marketing, Eric Toda on Building World-Class Brands & Rising with Authenticity

Phil Knight, the founder of Nike famously said “ Nike is a marketing company, and our product is our most important marketing tool.” But what does it take to build a world-class brand, and rise above the noise? I dive deep w…
Guest: Eric Toda
Jan. 5, 2023

Becoming the CEO Your Company Actually Needs to Scale & The Future of Virtual Kitchens with Kim Yao, CloudEats

We've heard a lot about scaling tactics for businesses, but have we paused to think about what it takes to scale ourselves as leaders at the helm? In this episode, Kim Yao, shares with us about how each chapter of her compan…
Guest: Kim Yao
Dec. 29, 2022

Reinventing Your Career at Every Age & Building a Top Performing Corporate VC with Paul Ark, Former MD, Digital Ventures, Siam Commercial Bank

In this episode, Paul Ark shares how "when you take that big leap of faith, what's waiting for you on the other side is not necessarily a bad thing". From investment banker with global banks Deutsche Bank and Citigroup in…
Guest: Paul Ark
Dec. 19, 2022

Turning Fear into Power: with Exiled Iranian Singer, Gola

What if at the edge of your deepest fear lays your greatest potential? Exiled from the only place she knew to be home, Iranian singer, Gola (Golazin) shares her story on how her first hand experiences of life under the op…
Guest: Gola