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Smart Humans with Slava Rubin
Smart Humans with Slava Rubin
Author: Vincent
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Smart Humans explores the world of alternative investments. From Venture to Collectibles, NFTs to Real Estate, Art to Debt and beyond - we discuss a new world of investment opportunities and the catalysts that impact their demand. Join our host Slava Rubin as he talks with entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders across the diverse ecosystem.
Any data, text, or other content on this page is provided as general market information and not as investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital.
Any data, text, or other content on this page is provided as general market information and not as investment advice. Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital.
102 Episodes
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Vincent's Slava Rubin and Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund discuss the emerging field of humanoid robotics, exploring the convergence of AI and robotics and the various use cases for these robots. They look at the key players in the industry and the future outlook for the sector.Presented by Augment, whose Collective funds are the easiest way to invest in the most popular private tech companies.
Recorded 10/29/25Vincent's Slava Rubin and Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund discussed Databricks, Groq, Anduril, Anthropic, and Canva, five of the hottest pre-IPO companies in the asset class - and how investors can get access to them.Presented by the Fundrise Innovation Fund.https://fundrise.com/Vincent
Anna Joo Fee is the Founder & CEO of Goodfin, a venture-backed startup harnessing the power of AI to modernize private wealth management. A second-time fintech founder, Anna holds deep conviction that AI will unlock sophisticated financial services on a global scale. Anna began her professional career as a lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP before co-founding her first startup, a trading platform for private equity fund investors. She is a graduate of Harvard College & Harvard Law School.
Slava Rubin and Adam Katz discuss their predictions for 2026 in private markets, covering pre-IPO startups, art & collectibles, crypto, and real estate. They discuss the potential resurgence of IPOs, the rebound in the art market, the volatility expected in the crypto landscape, and why 2026 will be a good year for real estate investing. The conversation highlights key investment strategies and trends to watch in the coming year across the four asset classes.
Noel Moldvai is co‑Founder and CEO at Augment, a pre‑IPO investing platform making private markets liquid, transparent, and accessible. Under Noel’s leadership, Augment scaled from launch to an 8-figure run rate in 18 months profitably, raised $17M, and surpassed $750M+ in AUM. Prior to Augment, Noel was an engineer at Google and an engineering leader at Rubrik, where he helped bring Rubrik’s on‑prem technology to the cloud and experienced the challenge of employee liquidity firsthand. Noel has a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, grew up in Eastern Europe and the Bay Area, and is now settled in Austin.
Slava Rubin and Adam Katz analyze the current state of the real estate market, mortgage rates, and investment strategies, and provide insights into which markets to be bullish or bearish about in the coming year.
In this mini-episode of Smart Humans, Vincent co-founders Slava Rubin and Adam Katz preview the year ahead for crypto, particularly Bitcoin, and discuss the rise of stablecoins, and the evolving role of digital asset treasuries and tokenization in the financial ecosystem.
In this mini-episode of Smart Humans, Vincent co-founders Slava Rubin and Adam Katz look back what 2025 brought in the art and collectibles market, and what to watch for in 2026.
Vincent co-founders Slava Rubin and Adam Katz preview the pre-IPO sector, talking about which major companies may IPO and which sectors investors should watch in the upcoming year.
Recorded 11/18/25Vincent co-founder Slava Rubin and Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund discuss the rise of prediction markets, focusing on Kalshi and Polymarket. They explore the mechanics of prediction markets, their regulatory landscape, and the competitive dynamics between these platforms. The discussion also touches on the future of prediction markets, their integration into existing trading platforms, and the potential for new market entrants.
Ben Miller is Co-Founder and CEO of Fundrise, America's largest direct-to-investor alternatives investment manager. Fundrise’s mission is to use technology to build a better financial system for the individual investor, one that is simpler, lower cost, more reliable and transparent.Since launching America’s first online real estate investment platform in 2012, Fundrise has now become the largest direct-to-investor alternatives investment manager in the country. From private credit to real estate private equity to growth-stage venture capital, Fundrise offers investors exposure to some of the most prized asset classes in the world.Prior to Fundrise, Ben has decades of experience in real estate and finance. As Managing Partner of WestMill Capital Partners and President of Western Development Corporation, Ben was responsible for acquiring, developing, and financing more than $500 million worth of property.
Recorded 10/15/25Vincent's Slava Rubin and Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund discuss the current state and future prospects of SpaceX, exploring its growth trajectory, revenue streams, and the impact of its Starlink internet service. The discussion also covers the technological advancements with Starship, the competitive landscape in the space industry, and the investment opportunities and risks associated with SpaceX.
Vincent CEO Eric Cantor and ARK Invest's Cathie Wood, EquityZen's Atish Davda, and Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund explore the evolving landscape of private markets and venture capital, focusing on how individual investors can navigate these opportunities. The panel discusses emerging pre-IPO companies, innovations in fintech, national security, and the future of space exploration, as well as the potential of quantum computing. Insights are shared on investment strategies, product risks, and the importance of understanding market dynamics.
Recorded 8/13/25Vincent co-founder Slava Rubin and Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund discuss the design startup Figma's recent IPO, its competitive landscape, financial metrics, and the impact of AI on the design software market. They explore Figma's core products, growth potential, and the risks associated with its valuation. The conversation also touches on the broader implications of AI in the design space and the future projections for Figma as a public company.
Sanford Blumenthal has been active in the fields of commercial real estate and investment finance for over 15 years. At Lightstone, Sanford has closed over $3 billion of completed acquisitions, developments, and financings. Mr. Blumenthal is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, deal structuring, and due diligence across the residential, hospitality, office, industrial, retail, and land sectors. During his tenure at Lightstone, Sanford has been instrumental in the strategic development of lifestyle-oriented hotels in major gateway markets, with a primary focus on the Moxy brand. Sanford specializes in opportunistic deals with intricate capital structures.
Arjun Sethi is co-CEO of Kraken, one of the most secure and enduring cryptocurrency platforms. He is also Chairman of Tribe Capital, a leading venture capital firm managing $1.7B in assets, with investments in Block, OpenAI, Rippling, Slack and xAI among others.Previously, Arjun was a Partner at Social Capital, where he led the venture team. He co-founded two startups—LOLapps (acquired by 6waves) and MessageMe (acquired by Yahoo). He joined Yahoo’s executive team to lead data and analytics teams and run mobile and emerging products. He also served as a Board Observer, helping to oversee the investment in Alibaba. Arjun has also incubated and co-founded Termina.ai, Kapital, and Foundation Robotics.
Mike Sall is the founder and CEO of Heron Finance, an SEC-registered investment advisor, making investing in the world's leading private market funds more accessible. Earlier in his career, Mike led product analytics at Coinbase, served as Head of Data Science at Medium, and worked in analytics and product roles at Adobe and Deloitte. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tim Draper founded Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. Funded Coinbase, Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, Focus Media, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC and 15 other unicorns from early/first rounds.He is a supporter and global thought leader for entrepreneurs everywhere, and is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin and decentralization, having won the Bitcoin US Marshall’s auction in 2014, invested in over 50 crypto companies, and led investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others.He is regularly featured on all major networks as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets and Bitcoin, and has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur of the World,” and is listed as one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by CryptoWeekly, #1 most networked VC by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, member of the Global Guru 30 Startup Gurus in the world, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum.
Recorded 6/12/25Slava Rubin, Jan-Erik Asplund and Christine Healey explore the investment landscape surrounding Elon Musk's companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and xAI. The discussion also covers the risks associated with investing in Musk's ventures, and the unique characteristics of the Musk ecosystem.



