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.
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October 21, 2026Episode 13044 min
Smart Humans: Get Access CEO Michael Goodbody on the evolution of private markets and opening up access to transformational companies
Michael Goodbody is the CEO of Get Access, a curated private markets platform connecting great companies with investors who bring both capital and the ability to help. He joined Guy Oseary of Sound Ventures in 2025 to build it, after leading marketing at Robinhood, Dave, Credit Karma, and Wise.
October 12, 2026Episode 12942 min
Smart Humans: Star Mountain Capital CEO Brett Hickey on the world of lower middle-market private investing and targeting resilient businesses
Brett Hickey has 25 years of private investing and investment banking experience and 20+ years of lower middle-market private investing experience. He has completed over 100 direct platform investments and 50 secondary/fund investments in the North American lower middle-market. He is the Founder & CEO of Star Mountain Capital, LLC, a multi-billion dollar specialized private investment firm, making loans, private equity investments and secondary fund purchases across its Collaborative Ecosystem® in the lower middle-market.
October 2, 2026Episode 12850 min
Smart Humans: Pre-IPO Investor Briefing on AI Infrastructure companies and Fluidstack w/ Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund
Brought to you by Templum Recorded 7/13/26 Slava Rubin and Jan-Erik Asplund explore the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market, focusing on Fluidstack and other key companies, technological trends, and investment opportunities. They discuss the energy demands of AI, the business models of neoclouds, and the risks and rewards of investing in this dynamic space.
September 22, 2026Episode 12759 min
Smart Humans: Chef Robotics Founder/CEO Rajat Bhageria on the present and future of Physical AI and Robotics
Rajat is the Founder and CEO of Chef Robotics. Prior to Chef, Rajat was Founder and Managing Partner at Prototype Capital, a pre-seed venture capital fund investing in founders who apply new technology to old industries. Before that, Rajat was the Founder and CEO of ThirdEye, where he led a team to build a product that empowers the visually impaired by recognizing what’s in front of them; ThirdEye was ultimately sold. Rajat has written a book about education reform, published a scientific paper in electrical engineering, and written for Forbes about entrepreneurship. He has a Master’s degree in Robotics and Machine Learning from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
September 9, 2026Episode 12641 min
Smart Humans: The Champion Fund's Marques Colston on his journey from NFL star to fund manager and investing across the sports ecosystem
Marques Colston is the Founder and Portfolio Manager of The Champion Fund. Operator and executive with more than a decade of leadership across the NFL, emerging sports leagues, and private capital. Co-owner of three Arena Football League franchises. Advised Arena Football League on strategic partnerships with DraftKings, CBS, William Hill, and Facebook. Strategic Advisor to NFLPA One Team Collective and NFL Players Inc. Advised on $350M+ in client assets as a financial advisor at Janney Montgomery Scott (Series 7 and Series 66 securities licenses). Co-Founder of Venture Playbook at Columbia Business School.
September 2, 2026Episode 12549 min
Smart Humans: Investor Briefing on IPOs after SpaceX w/ Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund
Recorded 8/4/26 Slava Rubin and Jan-Erik Asplund explore the recent IPO of SpaceX, its market performance, and the potential upcoming IPOs of major AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks.
August 24, 2026Episode 12455 min
Smart Humans: Entrepreneur and Investor Shane Neman on startup failures, successful investments, and the future of AI and innovation.
Shane Neman is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He founded and successfully exited two technology companies, JoonBug and EZ Texting, before moving to the investing side. Today he is the Manager of Neman Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on frontier technology, including AI, robotics, defense tech, quantum computing, and longevity. Separately, he runs the Neman Family Office, which holds direct investments and commercial real estate. He is the author of "Nightlife Lessons" and writes about startups, investing, and health at shaneneman.com.
August 12, 2026Episode 12356 min
Smart Humans: Corner Ventures & Aurite AI co-founder John Cadeddu on 25 years in VC, incubating AI startups and investing into farmland
John Cadeddu is the founding and managing partner at Corner Ventures. John brings 25 years of venture capital experience to this role and is a generalist with domain expertise in machine learning and artificial general intelligence. Prior to Corner, John co-founded DAG Ventures in 2004 and was Key Man for Funds I-V. As a venture investor, John has led investments in over 60 companies, including Bloom Energy, FireEye, Ambarella, Yelp, Pacific BioSciences, Jasper Technologies, Xoom, Eventbrite, Nextdoor, OneMedical and Wealthfront. Prior to this, John worked at JP Morgan, Tandem Computers and Octel Communications. He earned his BA with Honors from Harvard College and his MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. John co-founded Aurite in 2023 following the release of ChatGPT. John and his wife, Wendy, established a college scholarship fund in their Canadian hometown 25 years ago that has enabled 149 students, and counting, to attend university.
July 29, 2026Episode 12252 min
Smart Humans: Orbit2Orbit's founder Bradley Hatton-Jones on the future of space logistics, investing into space tech, and the in-orbit economy
Bradley Hatton-Jones is the Founder and CEO of Orbit2Orbit, an Australian space company building the infrastructure required to validate, move and service technology beyond Earth. Bradley led the design and build of Australia’s largest rocket manufacturing facility and supported the development of the Eris launch vehicle. He founded Orbit2Orbit in 2025 to address a growing gap in the space economy: launch can place hardware into orbit, but there is limited infrastructure to move, upgrade, service or retrieve it once it arrives.
Vincent's Slava Rubin is joined by Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund to explore the rapidly evolving field of quantum computing, its current state, future potential, and investment opportunities. They share insights on private and public market options, technological milestones, and what to expect by 2030.
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