The Game of Capital

The Game Of Capital

The Game of Capital is a podcast about how capital actually works in the real world. Not the polished format. The real one. We bring together founders, family office investors, operators, and capital allocators to talk about building companies, raising money, deploying it, and sometimes losing it, and what those experiences actually teach you. Because capital isn’t just money. It’s relationships. Reputation. Knowledge. Timing. Judgment.

Episodes

  1. Jun 5

    From $100M Exit to Building Again: What AI Is Doing to Tech Finance (with Reza Sanaie)

    In this episode of The Game Of Capital, we sit down with Reza Sanaie, co-founder of Beanworks, the AP automation company acquired by Quadient for $100M in 2021, and now founder of Proper, a company building the first fully autonomous finance platform for mid-sized businesses. Reza has been on both sides of the table. He has raised from investors in Canada and the US, built and sold a company, walked away from his earn-out to chase the next problem, and is now back in the trenches raising again. His perspective on what is broken in business finance and what AI can actually fix is sharp, practical, and earned. We talk about:✅ How Beanworks started from a failed company, a $100K customer check, and a management buyout nobody saw coming✅ Why finance teams are still drowning in spreadsheets despite billions invested in automation software✅ What autonomous finance actually means and why the best integration is no integration✅ The real difference between raising from US vs Canadian investors and what that says about our ecosystem✅ Why AI is creating a deflationary wave in services and what that means for how businesses should price and compete This is a builder's conversation. No fluff, no theory; Just two founders and one exit talking about what it actually takes to spot a broken market and go fix it.

    48 min

  2. May 26

    How AI Is Quietly Rewriting the Rules of Tech Investments

    In this episode of The Game of Capital, Luca and Sam go off-script for a raw, unfiltered conversation sparked by a recurring question they keep coming back to: is venture capital still the right vehicle to fund the next generation of tech companies? The answer, as it turns out, is complicated. AI is commanding exit multiples that traditional enterprise software simply can't compete with, and VCs are structurally incentivized to follow that money. Which raises an uncomfortable question for everyone else building in tech right now: if VC is chasing AI, who funds you? We talk about:✅ Why AI's insane exit multiples are quietly starving non-AI tech companies of venture funding✅ The gap nobody has filled yet, and whether private equity is positioned to step in earlier✅ Why your first ten enterprise customers might become your most strategic investors✅ The new operating model for tech companies: lean, self-sustainable, and built to survive without a VC lifeline✅ Why the VC relationship is transactional by design, and what a better model could look like This isn't a theoretical debate. It's two operators who live inside this ecosystem every day, calling out what's broken and sketching out what comes next.

    1h 1m

  3. May 8

    The Veteran VC Who Left Venture Behind to Turn Canadian Wood Waste Into Jet Fuel (with Keith Gillard)

    In this episode of The Game of Capital, we sit down with Keith Gillard — serial entrepreneur, former VC at Mitsubishi and BASF, Founding Director of Foresight (Canada's largest clean tech accelerator), and Co-founder & CEO of SUSTAERO, a company turning forest waste into Sustainable Aviation Fuel for major airlines worldwide. Keith's story is one of a rare few who has seen the startup ecosystem from every angle — as a founder, an investor, and now an operator. In 2020, he became convinced that venture capital was broken and pivoted hard into the lower middle market. Now he's betting everything on a multi-billion dollar clean tech project that doesn't follow the typical VC playbook — and that's exactly why it might work. We talk about: ✅ What Sustainable Aviation Fuel actually is — and why turning wood waste into jet fuel is more bankable than it sounds ✅ Why Keith thinks venture capital is broken — and what the lower middle market opportunity actually looks like ✅ The project finance playbook: how you fund a billion-dollar facility without a Series A ✅ De-risk, de-risk, de-risk — why "bankable" is the most important word in deep tech ✅ Why European airlines might fly to Toronto just to fill up — and fly home on clean fuel This isn't a story about a pitch deck and a SAFE note. It's a masterclass in how you build something massive, the hard way — with science, patience, and the right capital stack.

    57 min

  4. Apr 25

    The Founder Using Satellites to Track AI's Infrastructure Boom, Before the Market Reacts (with Sergio Toro)

    In this episode of The Game of Capital, Sam Pirzadeh and Luca Maraschi sit down with Sergio Toro, founder of Aterio, a data-as-a-service company that tracks the physical buildout of data centers across the US, using satellite imagery, and turns that intelligence into early signals for hedge funds, banks, and utility companies before the numbers ever hit a quarterly earnings call. But Sergio's story isn't just about data. It's about a founder who spent 15+ years in SaaS, got rejected by venture capital, and quietly became cashflow positive by doing the one thing most founders forget: focusing on the customer. Now he's building what might be the Bloomberg of AI infrastructure data — and he's in no rush to sell. We talk about:✅ How satellite imagery predicts stock movements before earnings calls✅ Why most founders are pitching the wrong room. VC vs. PE vs. Growth Equity✅ The Rule of 40 and why data companies play by completely different financial rules✅ Why data is uniquely defensive against AI, and actually fueled by it✅ The Bloomberg vs. Blackstone moment: legacy, control, and long-term thinking✅ The LVMH playbook: why Sergio's exit strategy looks more like building an empire than flipping a company This isn't a story about hypergrowth or a flashy raise. It's a real conversation about what it means to build something quietly indispensable. (Not financial advice. But maybe look into your local utility stocks.) ⚡

    45 min

  5. Apr 10

    Sanctions, Scale & Second Place: What Building Iran's Craigslist Taught Us About Capital (with Reza Arbabian)

    What happens when geopolitics kills your funding overnight? In this episode of The Game of Capital, we sit down with Reza Arbabian, a serial entrepreneur who built one of Iran's largest classifieds marketplaces from the ground up, scaled to 10 million active users and 400 employees, raised foreign capital during a rare window of openness... and then watched it all freeze the moment the sanctions hit. His story is an unfiltered look at what it really means to build, compete, and survive as a founder in a closed market, under geopolitical pressure, racing head-to-head for the number one spot, and landing second. Now back in Vancouver, Reza isn't slowing down. He's partnering with experienced immigrant founders to build a new generation of ventures, and rethinking what capital, conviction, and resilience actually mean in the age of AI. We talk about: ✅ How Reza built a double-sided marketplace in Iran, and what it takes to launch with no blueprint and no competition (yet) ✅ What US sanctions taught him overnight about capital dependency, survival mode, and cash flow ✅ The #2 player problem: why winner-takes-all markets are brutal, and what he'd do differently ✅ Where capital gets wasted in B2C: the real cost of billboards, acquisition, and churn ✅ How AI is reshaping the value of capital, and why brand, intuition, and resilience are the new moat ✅ What he's building now: a venture builder partnering with immigrant founders across FinTech, accommodation, and fundraising automation in Canada This isn't a polished success story. It's a real conversation about what you only learn when the money stops, and why that might be the most valuable lesson of all.

    46 min

  6. Mar 27

    From Elevator Pitch to Podcast: Why We Started “The Game of Capital”

    What is capital, really? In this first episode of The Game of Capital, we start from the beginning. How this all came together, and why we felt the need to build it. What started as a simple idea between two people and turned into something more: a mission to better understand how capital actually works in the real world. From meeting in an elevator (literally) to ongoing conversations about investing, building, and raising money, this episode sets the foundation for everything that follows. We talk about: ✅ How an investor and an entrepreneur see capital differently ✅ Why most conversations around capital feel incomplete ✅ What we’ve learned from each other’s perspectives ✅ How real-world experience shapes how you think about investing ✅ Why we’re building The Game of Capital This isn’t a polished take on venture or finance. It’s a real conversation, and the start of a much bigger journey.

    48 min
  • 6 Episodes

About

The Game of Capital is a podcast about how capital actually works in the real world. Not the polished format. The real one. We bring together founders, family office investors, operators, and capital allocators to talk about building companies, raising money, deploying it, and sometimes losing it, and what those experiences actually teach you. Because capital isn’t just money. It’s relationships. Reputation. Knowledge. Timing. Judgment.

Information

  • Creator
    The Game Of Capital
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Game Of Capital
  • Show Website
    The Game of Capital