Amir Haleem (Founder of Helium, CEO of Nova Labs)

I spoke with Amir Haleem, founder of Helium and CEO of Nova Labs, about his journey building the world's largest decentralized wireless networks.

Amir started Helium in 2013, with the initial vision to make it easier to connect IoT devices to the internet. After trying the traditional telecom playbook, he realized that combining crypto incentives with community participation could actually be key to scaling a truly global wireless network.

In our conversation, we spoke about how Amir came to this realisation, and how he tackled all the challenges that come with building and securing such a network, from dealing with sophisticated attempts to game the system, to managing a decentralized and diverse community of stakeholders.

Through Nova Labs and Helium, Amir wants to enable a future where decentralized communities play a major role in building and maintaining the networks that connect us.

Hope you enjoy this conversation!

Chapters: 

• 00:00 Cold open 
• 05:51 Amir’s thoughts on crypto incentives
• 11:15 The tradeoffs with community-led building
• 14:17 The pivot from IoT to wireless networks
• 25:28 Challenges with establishing “proof of coverage”
• 28:45 The balance between speed and perfection
• 42:43 Adapting to industry changes
• 45:24 Amir’s take on why entrepreneurship is so important
• 52:18 Amir’s closing reflections