The Global Startup Movement

Alexandre (Alex) Lazarow has spent his career working at the intersection of investing, innovation, and economic development in the private, public, and social sectors. He is a venture capitalist with Cathay Innovation, a global firm that invests across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Previously, Alex worked with Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm that has invested over a billion dollars in hundreds of startups around the world. He has served as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company, a financial regulator with the Bank of Canada, and an M&A investment banker with the Royal Bank of Canada.   Alex is an adjunct professor specializing in impact investment and entrepreneurship at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is a Kauffman Fellow, CFA Charterholder, and a Stephen M. Kellen Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Comm from the University of Manitoba. Preorder his new book:

Chris Maurice is the CEO and co-founder of Yellow Card Financial. Chris started his freelance writing and SEO consulting career in high school, writing for more than 200 publications (including the former EOG.com and MovieTVTechGeeks.com) and optimizing over 140 websites on Google (including Prezi.com). In college, Chris began sourcing shoes and clothing from Pakistan, giving him his first experience with international markets, partnerships, and currency exchange. He then started consulting for others looking for manufacturing connections in the Middle East, helping over 470 companies and brands start their own clothing line. While studying finance at Auburn University, Chris and his co-founder Justin Poiroux started selling Bitcoin for cash with the mission of giving people access to financial resources in a scalable, efficient manner. They made many mistakes and founded Yellow Card on the back of everything they learned.

Andile Masuku is a Zimbabwean broadcaster and entrepreneur based in Johannesburg, South Africa. As the executive producer of African Tech Roundup, much of his time is spent covering Africa's emerging tech and innovation ecosystem. Andile speaks widely and advises high net worth individuals and leading brands and businesses around the world on media strategy, market-entry plays and investment pipeline development focused on Sub-Saharan Africa. He has a finger on the pulse of the ecosystem's most pertinent issues and aspirations and has a penchant for extracting and delivering candid insight and analysis. Thanks to his active media role, Andile enjoys unprecedented live global network access to leading Africa-focused ecosystem players (founders, investors, policy-makers, C-suite executive and innovation hub runners) and he is well-positioned to assist industry stakeholders to gauge the nature and strength of the often indistinct interpersonal and inter-organisational relationships at play within the ecosystem.

Andile Masuku is a Zimbabwean broadcaster and entrepreneur based in Johannesburg, South Africa. As the executive producer of African Tech Roundup, much of his time is spent covering Africa's emerging tech and innovation ecosystem. Andile speaks widely and advises high net worth individuals and leading brands and businesses around the world on media strategy, market-entry plays and investment pipeline development focused on Sub-Saharan Africa. He has a finger on the pulse of the ecosystem's most pertinent issues and aspirations and has a penchant for extracting and delivering candid insight and analysis. Thanks to his active media role, Andile enjoys unprecedented live global network access to leading Africa-focused ecosystem players (founders, investors, policy-makers, C-suite executive and innovation hub runners) and he is well-positioned to assist industry stakeholders to gauge the nature and strength of the often indistinct interpersonal and inter-organisational relationships at play within the ecosystem.

On this episode we dive into our top 5 episode that we've ever done with leaders in the Asia-Pacific startup ecosystems. Featured guests include William Bao Bean, Sajith Pai, Justin Hall, Rivers Corbett, Alicia Garabedian and Simon Cant.  

Samia Melhem is a Lead Policy Officer in the World Bank's Transport and ICT Global Practice. She chairs the Digital Development Community of Practice and leads Global ICT's Transformation practice, as well as its Knowledge, Learning and Solutions functions. Her current operational responsibilities include lending and technical assistance for the ICT sector. In her 20 years of experience in development at the World Bank Group, Samia has worked on ICT4D in several sectors: telecommunications and broadband policy, ICT for public sector transformation, improving health and education services, and innovation and private sector development. Samia held several positions as regional coordinator in different regions such as Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Senior Operations Officer at InfoDev, and Strategy and Policy Officer in ECA, Africa and IMT.

Eric Olander is the co-founder of the China Africa Project (CAP), an independent, non-partisan media initiative dedicated to exploring every facet of China's engagement in Africa. Eric is also the co-host of the weekly China in Africa podcast that is now among the top-10% most downloaded shows worldwide. Eric is a fluent Mandarin-speaker and a longtime China-watcher with more than 25 years of journalism experience at many of the world's leading media companies including CNN, the BBC, and FRANCE24 among others. He received his undergraduate degree in East African History from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a master's degree in Chinese Public Affairs from the University of Hong Kong.

Odunayo Eweniyi is Cofounder and COO of PiggyVest. She previously cofounded pushcv.com, one of the largest job sites in Africa with the largest database of prescreened candidates. In 2019 she was named one of Forbes Africa 30 under 30 Technology as well as 30 Quartz Africa Innovators 2019. She sits on the advisory board of TrainFuture, an Education Technology company based in Switzerland, as well as the Gender Lens Acceleration Best Practices Initiative, a collaborative effort of Village Capital, US and the International Finance Corporation's Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative. She works to support the inclusion of women in technology by working with hubs and female-focused networks, including For Creative Girls, GreenHouse Labs, She Leads Africa, Itanna. She is also the cofounder of the women's community, Wine and Whine Nigeria.

Aubrey Hruby is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Africa Center. She is also co-founder of Insider and the Africa Expert Network (AXN), Co-host of the NewThink Podcast and an active investor in African start-ups. In her role at Insider, Hruby works with global entrepreneurs to generate positive public relations and to connect them with investors, while at AXN, she has helped build Africa's leading information brokerage and expert connection service. Hruby has consulted extensively in over twenty-five African markets and regularly advises senior policymakers and Fortune 500 companies on doing business in Africa. She is the former managing director of the Whitaker Group, an Africa-focused advisory firm that has helped facilitate well over $2 billion in capital flows to the continent. Prior to that, she was an International Trade Specialist at the Barnett Group LLC, where she worked with corporate clients to resolve trade problems in the Middle East and Africa. Aubrey sits on the board of Inves

On this episode we dive into our top 5 episode that we've ever done with leaders in the MENA startup ecosystems. Featured guests include Ali Abukumail, Idriss Al Rifai, Jacob Korenblum, Simon Galpin, and Yariv Lotan.

W. Gyude Moore is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. He previously served as Liberia's Minister of Public Works with oversight over the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure from December 2014 to January 2018. Prior to that role, Moore served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Head of the President's Delivery Unit (PDU). As Head of the PDU, his team monitored progress and drove delivery of the Public Sector Investment Program of Liberia—a program of over $1 billion in road, power, port infrastructure, and social programs in Liberia after the civil war. As one of the President's trusted advisors, he also played a crucial role in supporting President Sirleaf as Liberia responded to the West Africa Ebola outbreak and shaped its post-Ebola outlook At CGD, Moore's research focus is around financing infrastructure in Africa and the changing landscape of development finance on the continent.  His research tracks the channels of private sources of

On this episode we dive into our top 5 episode that we've ever done with leaders in the Canadian startup ecosystems. Featured guests include Mark Organ, Mark Maclean, Charles Boulanger, Rivers Corbett, and Marie Chevrier.

Julio Lavalle is the Cofounder of Poupa Certo and MiBolsillo, mobile apps that digitize financial behaviors and tasks to build a financially healthy generation with less human intervention and reduced transaction costs for both end users and financial institutions to bring 5 million people to the formal financial system in the next three years. Poupa Certo and MiBolsillo currently operate in Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, and Mexico with plans to expand into more Spanish-speaking countries. After working on business and economic research, Julio found in development economics a path to put learnings and skills in practice to generate actual impact, shaped by powerful experiences at local and international NGOs, and organizations such as The World Bank.

Samier Mansur is a social entrepreneur, innovator, and writer who is driven by ideas that can build a more just, peaceful, and better organized world. Samier is the founder of No Limit Generation, an organization that supports thousands of displaced and vulnerable children rise and thrive into their full potential. This initiative builds on his previous work in founding the "Safe Haven" for Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh in partnership with the award-winning JAAGO Foundation. The facility provides 500 Rohingya refugee children and orphans a safe space for learning, play, and healing every day. Samier is also the co-founder of LiveSafe, a revolutionary smartphone app that empowers millions of students, employees, and service men and women with the tools to keep themselves and their communities safe. He has as served various US Govt agencies and initiatives from global policymaking to human rights and security, and facilitation of trade and development programs in the rapidly developing economies. He

Eli David is the co-founder of StartupBlink.com, global map and research center of the global startup ecosystem. They work with dozens of governments and municipalities on the promotion and mapping of their ecosystems. StartupBlink was featured in hundreds of magazines around the world and has thousands of registered startups and release the World's most comprehensive startup ecosystem index ranking more than 1,000 cities and 100 countries. In 2010, Eli also co-founded Lingolearn with its current CEO and team. Lingolearn provides private lessons online for thousands of students in 16 languages. Eli is a digital nomad and lived in more than 20 countries in the last 4 years, constantly changing locations. Eli thinks Nomads and Startup owners have everything in common, in regard to initiating great changes and taking smart risks to achieve happiness.

This special installment of The Global Startup Movement podcast was recorded at the Africa Fintech Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with 4 tech ecosystem player including Adam Abate Cofounder & CEO of Apposit, Yemiru Chanyalew CEO of Moneta Technologies, Saad Sheikh Principal of Investments at TLG Capital, and Habtamu Tadesse Founder & CEO of both Zayride and Arifpay.

Kristin Rechberger is CEO of Dynamic Planet, a company that invests in conservation enterprises so that people and nature can thrive: wilderness protection (land and sea), sustainable tourism, food-energy-water security, and market transformation towards sustainable sourcing and consumption.  As SVP Global Programs & Partnerships at the National Geographic Society, over 14 years Kristin helped lead worldwide growth of cable channels, corporate partnerships, and research, conservation, and exploration programs. Lived in Seoul, Korea as Luce Fellow; produced documentary films throughout Asia. Selected as a 2009 Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum; serves on the Advisory Council, and involved with oceans, the shared economy, and the future of global development. Serves on the boards of Pristine Seas, The Ocean Foundation, and Children's Eyes on Earth. Public policy and documentary film degrees, Duke University; executive courses, Harvard and Yale.

Shailee Aldinofi is Director of Public Sector Solutions at ConsenSys, a global blockchain technology company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world. She served as Vice President of BanQu, a blockchain-based platform for supply chain transparency. Prior to joining the blockchain industry, Shailee spent 11 years leading USAID funded projects in financial inclusion, mobile money in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and 3 years in logistics and software development for US government projects.

Nizar Zakka is a Lebanese national and US permanent resident who was arrested by Iran in 2015, and was imprisoned until 2019 on charges of espionage for the United States. Zakka worked as an Internet freedom advocate and served as secretary general of the Arab ICT Organization in Washington, D.C.. On September 8, 2018, the person who had invited Nizar to visit Iran, Shahindokht Molaverdi, the top aide for citizenship rights to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, told the Associated Press that the Iranian government had not approved Nizar's imprisonment, and that "[w]e did all we could to stop this from happening, but we are seeing that we have failed to make a significant impact." She blamed a "complete miscoordination" between Iran's civilian government and its independent judiciary, adding that "actions by one branch can ignore or neutralize efforts by another branch". Despite the admission Iran was holding him against his will, Zakka remained a hostage in Iran until June 2019. With the sponsorship of his home