6 dgn geleden

He Made It To The NFL. Now He Wants To Prove Himself All Over Again.

Most people know Kelvin Beachum as an NFL offensive lineman who has spent nearly 15 years competing at the highest level of professional football. But that's only part of his story. For more than a decade, Kelvin has also been quietly building an entirely different career by learning the craft of investing, working alongside some of the best firms in venture capital and private equity, deploying his own capital, and ultimately building an investment firm with fellow NFL great and NFL Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald. What makes Kelvin's story so interesting isn't simply that he's an athlete who became an investor - it's that he deliberately built the skills to become one. He approached investing the same way he did playing football: by having discipline, curiosity, and a genuine willingness to embrace years of delayed gratification. Along the way, he worked with firms like Kleiner Perkins, Silver Lake, Thrive, and Sequoia, and developed a conviction that athletes shouldn't just lend their names or their influence to businesses. They should have the opportunity to become serious, active participants in the investment ecosystem. We talk about the unique perspective athletes can bring to venture capital, why it takes more than just access to make you a successful investor, how Kelvin and Larry are building an institutional investment platform designed to last for decades, and why Kelvin says that whenever his NFL career ends, investing won't be his second act - it will be the only act he plans to pursue. 2:00 Kelvin shares his journey from growing up in a small town in Texas to spending nearly 15 years as an NFL offensive lineman - and the curiosity that eventually led him to investing. 4:26 How growing up around his father’s automotive shop shaped the way he thinks about startups, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship. 7:39 How he evolved from a football player interested in angel investing into “an investor who happens to play football.” 9:46 How experiences with Kleiner Perkins, Silver Lake, Thrive, and Sequoia helped him build his investing skills and institutional mindset. 12:45 Why he believes more professional athletes should become active participants in the investment ecosystem - and why access and celebrity status aren’t enough without doing the work. 23:00 How Kelvin and Larry Fitzgerald connected, discovered a shared passion for investing, and began evaluating deals and conducting diligence together. 26:17 How they found time to build relationships and source deals while playing in the NFL - and why the discipline of professional sports translates to investing. 30:02 Why they are choosing to do something difficult all over again, and what Mike Tomlin’s “volunteers, not hostages” philosophy means to Kelvin. 33:37 How they are building an institutional investment platform focused on critical tech, enterprise software, fintech infrastructure, and select sports investments. 38:28 Why investing isn’t a “second act” for Kelvin - it’s the only act he plans to pursue when his NFL career eventually comes to an end.

19 aug

Why David Potts Is Betting on the Pipes Behind AI

Why David Potts Is Betting on the Pipes Behind AI Every company you've ever worked for is secretly held together by duct tape – software systems that don't talk to each other, and expensive engineers paid to force them to. David Potts built a business fixing that problem for himself, and then realized the fix was worth more than the company it came from. He spent decades shipping products at Texas Instruments and SafeNet, founded SalesWarp, and now leads Camber Creek portfolio company CloudQix. In this episode, David sat down with Camber Creek General Partner Jeffrey Berman to discuss how an integration platform originally built to solve complex problems for retailers evolved into CloudQix – and why the rise of AI has made connecting disparate systems securely more important than ever. They explore CloudQix’s focus on wealth management and RIAs, where firms are eager to embrace AI but face fragmented data, legacy systems, privacy concerns, and strict compliance requirements. David also shares his perspective on what enterprise AI adoption looks like beyond the hype: how companies can use AI while maintaining security, governance, and audit trails; why businesses shouldn’t necessarily tie themselves to a single foundational model; and where human expertise still matters as more work becomes automated. 1:36 David shares his 30-year career in technology and how he founded SalesWarp to solve complex retail operations challenges. 3:01 How SalesWarp’s integration technology became the foundation for CloudQix. 6:43 Why David spun out CloudQix to pursue the growing intersection of enterprise integration and AI. 8:23 Why CloudQix is initially focused on wealth management, family offices, and RIAs. 10:11 The hidden compliance risk of employees using AI without formal oversight or governance. 13:30 How CloudQix brings together data, AI, and existing systems to streamline workflows like client onboarding. 18:01 The “bring your own model” approach and why businesses shouldn’t have to commit to a single AI provider. 20:51 Protecting proprietary information when using AI through data controls, security, and auditability. 24:32 Why traditional integration platforms were built for a pre-AI world—and how AI agents are changing the equation. 30:25 Measuring the ROI of AI and how CloudQix aims to give significant time back to financial advisors. 34:04 Building an AI-native company while still relying on human expertise to understand clients and industries. 40:54 Scaling CloudQix, staying focused amid growing demand, and David’s vision for building a durable, independent company.

5 aug

Felix Sabates Is The Most Interesting Man In The World

Felix Sabates could be the most interesting man in the world. He was an early distributor for one of the first commercially successful video games, Atari's Pong. He did a lot to introduce Nintendo to America from its home in Japan. And he was a founding co-owner of the Charlotte Hornets, an NBA franchise. He also loves cars. He used to own his own NASCAR team. Sabates did all of this after fleeing Cuba as a teenager. He sat down with Camber Creek General Partner Jeffrey Berman to talk about his remarkable life and career. 00:15 Felix opens with a story about buying—and selling—a rare Bugatti within hours for a substantial profit. 06:56 Growing up in Cuba, opposing Fidel Castro's revolution as a teenager, and joining the resistance. 10:05 Escaping an armed mission that ended with nearly everyone else in his group being killed 13:54 Felix explains how his father rushed him onto a flight to the United States with just $25 and two boxes of cigars. 15:09 On arriving in the American South and the shocking encounter that forced his family to flee Ku Klux Klan intimidation. 22:07 He recalls being dismissed at a Rolls-Royce dealership until one phone call instantly changed the salesman's attitude. 25:09 How an overnight demonstration of Pong led him to become an early distributor for Atari's groundbreaking video games. 29:42 After Atari moved on, Felix helped convince Nintendo to enter the US market and then helped make it a phenomenon. 31:26 He describes turning relationships into another breakthrough by helping launch Compaq's retail computer business. 37:17 Felix tells the story of helping Charlotte secure an NBA franchise by guaranteeing the sale of 10,000 season tickets. 39:09 The conversation turns to the Charlotte Hornets' decision to trade Kobe Bryant on draft night and why Felix believes it ultimately benefited Bryant. 40:32 The memoir Felix plans to publish one day and the many stories still left untold

22 jul

She’s Like A Therapist, If The Thing Causing You Angst Is The Global Economy

Rebecca Patterson is not a therapist by training, but talking to her certainly feels therapeutic. A senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an independent director at Vanguard, she gets a lot of calls from CEOs, policymakers, and publications like The New York Times that more or less boil down to this question: What in the world is happening to the economy, and how do I survive it? People reach out to her because she's smart, but also, we suspect, because she doesn't respond as if she's above it all. These questions aren't just analytical. Rebecca is in it with us. We talked about how the offshoring of US manufacturing jobs beginning in the '70s and some of the transformations that followed might help us read or at least appreciate what artificial intelligence could do to labor markets. We also asked her about political populism and why she spends so much time thinking about second- and third-order effects of big changes, the things that might not make headlines. 2:11 Rebecca explains how a journalism background, a scholarship to France, and a chance opportunity at JPMorgan launched her career in international economics. 4:40 Journalism became her competitive advantage, helping her filter noise, ask better questions, and communicate complex economic ideas. 7:13 Inflation, war, AI, climate change, and other simultaneous shocks are fueling political populism around the world. 8:26 Today's political instability reflects decades of economic change that have left many workers feeling left behind. 12:12 Why populist policies often fail to solve the problems that drive public frustration. 14:40 Rebecca discusses declining workforce participation and asks who should take responsibility for preparing workers for a changing economy. 16:30 What would a sensible policy response to artificial intelligence should look like as AI reshapes the labor market? 21:47 AI competition with China, export controls, and whether national borders can meaningfully contain AI development 24:23 Why countries that rapidly adopt AI—not just those that invent it—could see the greatest economic gains. 26:47 Looking back at the decline of US manufacturing, Rebecca explains what lessons policymakers should apply to the AI era. 30:28 Rebecca shares the questions CEOs ask most often, from booming stock markets to planning amid unprecedented uncertainty. 32:10 She argues that globalization is evolving rather than disappearing, with companies increasingly pursuing friendshoring and supply-chain diversification. 35:20 Why America's long-term strengths remain intact even as trust among allies has been damaged. 41:32 Rebecca explains the idea behind The Spillover, her podcast exploring the second- and third-order effects of major global events. 44:10 Rebecca is optimistic about improving financial literacy and helping more people thrive in a rapidly changing economy

8 jul

If “Renewable Computing” Works At Scale, There Might Not Need To Be A Data Center In Your Backyard

John Belizaire and his company's stock price have been on a roller coaster ride. Soluna connects clients with big computer processing needs to the energy to power those calculations. Because it was so heavily tied to Bitcoin mining, the share price has risen and fallen with the cryptocurrency and is now down more than 3000% from its 2021 peak. But John is convinced that he and his team are solving big problems, like how to efficiently power data centers. Instead of requiring utilities to build expensive new infrastructure in highly populated areas, Soluna locates its data centers next to renewable energy assets like wind farms, where the marginal cost of a kilowatt-hour is minuscule. And he spends a fair amount of his time on social media explaining this approach. It's fascinating. Even though Soluna is a public company, it leverages the strategies of startups and influencers to reach retail and institutional investors, because the price of energy is rising, but the value in capturing people's attention is even greater. 1:30 John’s early fascination with technology 4:32 Founding his first company 9:59 Soluna’s business model 18:11 Working with intermittent energy sources 21:05 Navigating crypto markets and Soluna's dramatic stock price swings 25:35 Pitching Soluna’s story to institutional and retail investors 29:12 The changing culture of investing. Navigating speculation, meme stocks, prediction markets, and the blurring line between investing and gambling. 34:20 Why John spends so much time creating educational content, including frequent videos on social media, to help investors understand both the energy industry and Soluna's role within it. 36:19 Traditional equity analysts play a smaller role than they once did 45:17 On the growing public resistance to data centers and how Soluna is responding: renewable computing

1 jul

On The Internet, No One Knows You’re A Dog, Or A Bot—Except Proof

If you've ever notarized a document online instead of having to get in your car to drive to a notary public, you have Pat Kinsel to thank. And if one day your identity is not stolen after you purchase something on the web, you may have Pat and his team to thank for that, too. As Co-Founder of the identity-verification company Proof, formerly known as Notarize, Pat Kinsel gets animated about problems that are important but largely invisible, vulnerable moments during pivotal online interactions that can come back to haunt us if the right protections aren't in place. So he's building a trust layer for the internet with clients like Visa. Pat spoke with Camber Creek Managing Partner Jake Fingert about how he got started as an entrepreneur and working with partners who appreciate big and lucrative but overlooked problems. 1:19 Growing up in California on the Stanford campus, where his mother worked. Surrounded by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from an early age, Pat says he always knew he wanted to build companies. 2:49 Launching his first company while in college after leaving school to take a job in financial technology. Although that first venture failed, it convinced him that entrepreneurship was the right path. 3:57 Joining Microsoft to learn how world-class technology companies operate. 8:22 Pat's next company, Spindle. Building social search technology, launching products ahead of competitors, and eventually selling the business to Twitter after solving a major data-classification challenge. 11:35 After working as a venture investor and seeing companies like Drizly and Lob modernize traditional services, he realized notarization could be transformed the same way. 14:03 Changing state laws to permit remote online notarization 21:26 Evolving from Notarize to Proof. Proof's core mission: allowing people to securely prove who they are and what they have authorized online. 28:03 Proof's partnership with Visa. Studying the history of Visa led Pat to recognize parallels between the evolution of payment security and the future of digital identity. 30:56 Deepfakes and AI impersonation are already more dangerous than most people appreciate. Pat argues individuals need cryptographic digital identities. 39:34 Did Pat always know online notarization would eventually become something bigger?

24 jun

The Co-Writer of "The Hangover" Runs A Media Empire Out Of An Old High School In Syracuse

Jeremy Garelick just wants to make people laugh. But to sustain an incredibly successful career doing that, he has solved some pretty knotty problems. In his twenties, he didn't know how to write a script but transformed himself from a production assistant into a sought-after screenwriter in just a few years. He would go on to co-write The Hangover. When movie studios refused to make the kind of comedies he loves, because they thought the return on smaller films wasn't worth their effort, he purchased an old high school as a film set, kept costs low, and arranged his own financing. Today, he controls every aspect of production on a campus called American High. While Hollywood struggles in the streaming era and sees diminishing returns from old, overused properties, Garelick has figured out his own business model, how to grab attention with original stories, and when he needs to, bypass the studio system, all in the service of jokes. 3:13 Garelick describes growing up in New York with no entertainment industry connections. A conversation with classmates about unusual summer experiences convinced him that he could pursue something beyond the familiar world around him. 4:20 Persistence and cold outreach led him to an internship at Disney through a producer’s office. There, he fell in love with screenplays and began writing extensive notes on scripts despite having no formal training. 9:35 No one ever asked the interns for their opinion, yet only a few years later he became one of Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriters. 11:44 Interning with television legends David Milch and Steven Bochco before joining the talent agency CAA 15:00 Arriving in Florida for the filming of Tigerland and realizing immediately that directing movies was what he wanted to do with his life 19:08 The Hangover 28:46 Writing for stars Vince Vaughn, Adam Sandler, Kevin Hart, and Owen Wilson 30:36 Realizing that high school movies share many production requirements and that controlling the location could dramatically reduce costs. After learning about New York’s film tax incentives, he searched online for schools and found the perfect property. 37:30 The origin story of Rolling Loud 40:45 Why he is not afraid of artificial intelligence 44:12 Partnering with Hulu 53:17 Garelick is a creative first and a talented, but accidental, entrepreneur out of necessity

17 jun

Artificial Intelligence That Creates More Career-Defining Moments For Users

There are pivotal moments that have the potential to change so much. We take on new jobs, new projects, get promoted, start hiring for a key role. When the right people coordinate during these small windows of time, great things can happen. But we may not hear about them until the opportunity to connect, do business, or celebrate together has passed. A startup called Ren is fixing this by teeing up information about key moments happening to the people you know so that you can act. Camber Creek sat down with Ren Systems CEO Canay Deniz to talk about his mission to systematize serendipity, as he describes it, and why Camber Creek invested. 1:14 Canay shares his immigration story. Born in a refugee camp, he and his family received asylum in Switzerland, where he spent most of his childhood and received his education. 3:00 Canay describes joining an early-stage startup spun out of ETH Zurich, where he worked on predictive analytics for industrial equipment and telecommunications infrastructure. 7:30 On “engineered serendipity.” Many successful leaders repeatedly place themselves in situations where opportunity can emerge. 10:58 Contrasts between European and American attitudes toward risk, entrepreneurship, and innovation. 14:06 Ren’s central mission: helping people stop missing important moments in the lives of the people and organizations they care about. 17:00 Extensive customer interviews revealed a common problem among dealmakers: learning about important developments too late to act on them. 21:00 One user attributed a career-defining business win to information surfaced through Ren. 28:23 Why platforms like LinkedIn fall short for relationship management and business development. 32:24 Ren’s emphasis on simplicity, including AI-generated outreach suggestions and workflow automation. The platform learns a user’s communication style and becomes increasingly personalized over time. 39:00 Canay introduces one of Ren’s future initiatives: helping organizations determine the best person to facilitate an introduction to a target contact or company. 41:55 Avoiding generic-sounding AI-generated communication. In Canay’s view, purpose-built AI should amplify individuality rather than homogenize communication. 46:21 Ren’s security architecture isolates and protects sensitive customer information.

Catalyst by Camber Creek

He Made It To The NFL. Now He Wants To Prove Himself All Over Again.

Why David Potts Is Betting on the Pipes Behind AI

Felix Sabates Is The Most Interesting Man In The World

She’s Like A Therapist, If The Thing Causing You Angst Is The Global Economy

If “Renewable Computing” Works At Scale, There Might Not Need To Be A Data Center In Your Backyard

On The Internet, No One Knows You’re A Dog, Or A Bot—Except Proof

The Co-Writer of "The Hangover" Runs A Media Empire Out Of An Old High School In Syracuse

Artificial Intelligence That Creates More Career-Defining Moments For Users

Trailer

Trailer

Info

Informatie

Catalyst by Camber Creek

Afleveringen

He Made It To The NFL. Now He Wants To Prove Himself All Over Again.

Why David Potts Is Betting on the Pipes Behind AI

Felix Sabates Is The Most Interesting Man In The World

She’s Like A Therapist, If The Thing Causing You Angst Is The Global Economy

If “Renewable Computing” Works At Scale, There Might Not Need To Be A Data Center In Your Backyard

On The Internet, No One Knows You’re A Dog, Or A Bot—Except Proof

The Co-Writer of "The Hangover" Runs A Media Empire Out Of An Old High School In Syracuse

Artificial Intelligence That Creates More Career-Defining Moments For Users

Trailer

Info

Informatie