I liked who I worked with, I loved the team, the pay was phenomenal. I did that for six years or so, six, almost seven years. And there were parts of it I really liked, frankly. And there’s a lot of incentives to do that, whether it’s financial or you’ve got a lot of encouragement from the career center and whatnot. I went into business school with a mission, which was to get into growth equity, and that’s exactly what I did. And in business school, it’s a great opportunity to explore what you want to do, and I did not do that in business school. Out of college, went into consulting at BCG, and then business school at Stanford.
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I grew up there, went to college down at Duke. So I wanted to start there and learn a little bit about how you got your start, what led you to founding CircleUp, and how you got to where you are today? That’s such an interesting space, and you have such a great background. I am very excited about our discussion today, which is going to involve a lot of talk around, not only your background and how you funded CircleUp but crowdfunding in general and where this is all going. And today, I’m super excited to have with me Ryan Caldbeck on the show.
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Welcome to The Investor’s Podcast Network. We keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. You are listening to The Investor’s Podcast Network, where we study the financial markets and read the books that influence self-made billionaires the most. So without further ado, please enjoy this discussion with the very thoughtful, Ryan Caldbeck. Ryan is an experienced investor and operator who has surrounded himself with a large network of other great investors. We also to discuss leadership techniques Ryan learned from Coach K, the famous basketball coach at Duke University, while he was on the basketball team, the traditional path and alluring appeal of becoming an institutional investor, but also what it can sometimes lack, the hidden misalignments of incentives in the crowdfunding space, how investors can protect themselves while considering crowdfunding deals, insights into building your own board, team, and cap table, the future of fintech and web3, and a whole lot more.
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Ryan is the founder and chairman of CircleUp, a platform that set out to democratize investing, but ultimately pivoted away to a different model, and we discuss why. On today’s episode, we are exploring some very interesting topics around fintech, entrepreneurship, and the pitfalls of crowdfunding, with Ryan Caldbeck. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences. Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence.