In this episode of Conductive Conversations, Carey Lai, co-founder and managing director of Conductive Ventures, speaks with Abigail Hing Wen, New York Times bestselling author and former Silicon Valley dealmaker at Intel Capital. Abigail shares her unique journey from clerking at the DC Circuit Court to working at Intel on AI investments, and becoming a celebrated author and Hollywood filmmaker. She delves into her life, growing up with activist parents, navigating the often challenging career path as an Asian American woman and how she has honed her creative process writing novels. Abigail also discusses her transition to filmmaking with her directorial debut, 'The Vale', and the challenges and rewards of adapting her books into movies.

About Abigail Hing Wen

Abigail Hing Wen works at the intersection of storytelling and technology. She is a New York Times Best Selling Author of five novels, producer, director, woman-in-tech leader specializing in artificial intelligence, as well as a mother of two. She writes and speaks about tech, AI ethics, women’s leadership and transforming culture.

Abigail penned the New York Times Best Selling and Indie Best Selling novel LOVEBOAT, TAIPEI and its two companion novels. She executive produced the film adaptation of the Paramount Plus original film, LOVE IN TAIPEI starring Ashley Liao (Hunger Games) and Ross Butler (Shazam). Her middle grade debut, THE VALE, has been partially adapted to a short film prequel THE VALE–ORIGINS starring Lea Salonga. She and her work have been profiled in Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, NBC News, Forbes, Fortune, Cosmopolitan, Bloomberg, Seventeen, Google Talk, People, People en Espanol, South China Morning Post and the World Journal, among others.

Abigail holds a BA from Harvard, where she took coursework in film, ethnic studies and government. She also holds a JD from Columbia and MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. In her career in tech, she has negotiated multibillion dollar deals on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, worked in venture capital and hosted Intel’s Artificial Intelligence podcast.

About Carey Lai

Carey Lai is a Founder and General Partner at Conductive Ventures focused on finding overlooked entrepreneurs who are building capital-efficient businesses who punch above their weight. With deep experience in software and tech-enabled services, Carey brings a results-driven, hands-on approach to scaling businesses empowering founders who dare to dream big and make the nearly impossible a reality.

Carey’s journey to becoming a seasoned venture investor over the past 20 years has been anything but conventional. Before founding Conductive Ventures, he spent over seven years diving into the world of tech investing at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), where he specialized in later-stage, high-growth companies in the enterprise software realm.

He was involved with companies like ArcSight (ARST), At Road (ARDI), Business.com (DEXO), Concur (CNQR), Cortina Systems (acquired by Inphi), Danger (MSFT), Data Domain (EMC), Mobile365 (SAP), SuccessFactors (SFSF), Synchronoss (SNCR) and Yodlee (YDLE). After IVP, Carey continued to sharpen his investment experience at Intel Capital, where he honed his focus on the most promising Internet and enterprise software companies. His portfolio included 500Friends (acquired by Dentsu), Box (BOX), BrightEdge, Gigya (acquired by SAP), Kabam (acquired by Netmarble), Nexmo (acquired by Vonage), Onefinestay (acquired by AccorHotels), Sprinklr (CXM), and SweetLabs.

This episode of Conductive Conversations was produced by Carissa Lai for Conductive Ventures.

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In this episode of Conductive Conversations, Carey Lai, Founder & General Partner of Conductive Ventures, sits down with Joshua Lee, the comics-loving entrepreneur and former CEO of Ardius. Joshua opens up about his leap from a 14 year tax career at Ernst & Young to building and investing in startups, an inspiring path shaped by his single mom upbringing and experiences as an Asian American founder.

He dives into aligning passion with career, lessons from the venture capital world, and the tricky balance between family and work. As a founder and investor, Joshua leaves founders with one powerful insight: “Your cap table is everything—it’s the only thing that truly matters at the end of the day.”

​​Joshua and Carey met while in UCLA and have been life-long friends since.

About Joshua Lee

Joshua Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Ardius, which sold to Gusto in 2021. Prior to Ardius, Joshua served as a senior executive for over 13+ years with Ernst & Young, a leading global consulting and advisory firm. It was there he focused primarily on understanding the impact of various credits and incentives for both start-ups and Fortune 100 companies alike. After starting his own venture fund(s) soon thereafter, he noticed his portfolio of companies did not have the same access to these types of credits and decided to set out to democratize taxes.

A seasoned leader in start-up operations and funding, Joshua has had multiple exits as both an investor and founder. He continues to focus on fintech because it blends all of his accounting/tax knowledge with his passion for technology. Joshua currently serves on the boards of directors/advisors of numerous companies and holds multiple degrees in Business-Economics, Accounting, and Taxation.

About Carey Lai

Carey Lai is a Founder and General Partner at Conductive Ventures focused on finding overlooked entrepreneurs who are building capital-efficient businesses who punch above their weight. With deep experience in software and tech-enabled services, Carey brings a results-driven, hands-on approach to scaling businesses empowering founders who dare to dream big and make the nearly impossible a reality.

Carey’s journey to becoming a seasoned venture investor over the past 20 years has been anything but conventional. Before founding Conductive Ventures, he spent over seven years diving into the world of tech investing at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), where he specialized in later-stage, high-growth companies in the enterprise software realm.

He was involved with companies like ArcSight (ARST), At Road (ARDI), Business.com (DEXO), Concur (CNQR), Cortina Systems (acquired by Inphi), Danger (MSFT), Data Domain (EMC), Mobile365 (SAP), SuccessFactors (SFSF), Synchronoss (SNCR) and Yodlee (YDLE)

After IVP, Carey continued to sharpen his investment experience at Intel Capital, where he honed his focus on the most promising Internet and enterprise software companies. His portfolio included 500Friends (acquired by Dentsu), Box (BOX), BrightEdge, Gigya (acquired by SAP), Kabam (acquired by Netmarble), Nexmo (acquired by Vonage), Onefinestay (acquired by AccorHotels), Sprinklr (CXM), and SweetLabs.

Carey’s roots trace back to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he worked in the Technology Investment Banking Group. It was here that he got intimately involved in the software and financial technology sectors, handling high-profile offerings for tech giants like some of the leading technology companies in the world, including Blackbaud Software (BLKB), Computer Associates (CA), Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Sungard Data Systems (SDS), and Tibco Software (TIBX).

This episode of Conductive Conversations was produced by Carissa Lai for Conductive Ventures.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Conductive Conversations, Carey Lai, founder and managing director of Conductive Ventures, speaks with Kevin Chou, the Founder and CEO of Kabam and a five-time entrepreneur. He shares about the struggles of fundraising and competing against Facebook, why venture capital wasn't for him, and how AI is transforming the world. Join us as Kevin candidly discusses his unique career journey, the evolution of his first company into Kabam, and the essential qualities needed for entrepreneurial success.

02:15 Kevin’s unlikely path to entrepreneurship

08:34 Facebook and the birth of Kabam

12:37 Navigating the Financial Crisis and Pivots

20:58 Lessons in Leadership and Team Building

37:48 Fun Rapid-Fire Questions

41:01 Bill Gates' Leadership Style and Philanthropy

43:12 The Importance of Grit for Entrepreneurs

44:24 Luck vs. Hard Work

46:11 Finding the Right Mentor

48:29 Do Founders Need to Be Technical?

50:37 What Makes a Good VC to a Founder?

54:00 Fundraising vs Board Meetings

57:54 Staying Grounded in Silicon Valley

01:00:35 Being an Asian American Founder

01:05:50 The Future of AI On Learning and Jobs

01:13:50 Reflections on Success, Happiness and Legacy

01:20:17 A Minor Detour into Professional Poker

01:23:22 Outtakes

Kevin Chou is a five-time entrepreneur behind the companies Kabam, SuperLayer, Rally, Gen.G and Forte. Most recently, he co-founded Bright Saver, a nonprofit with the mission to make solar energy and storage accessible to everyone.

Kevin founded venture studio SuperLayer in 2021, whose mission is to build easy-to-use consumer crypto products that can bring in the next 100 million people into crypto. Prior to SuperLayer, Kevin founded Rally, a Creator Economy crypto protocol. Rally is a blockchain project for Creators and their fan communities to thrive together. In 2021, Rally reached a fully-diluted market cap of over $3 billion. Prior to that, Kevin was the founding CEO of Forte, a blockchain game developer platform. Forte's mission is to build a more collaborative future in gaming by realigning the economic relationship between players and developers. Forte raised at a multi-billion dollar valuation from SEA, Kora, Griffin, a16z, Union Grove, Canaan, and Battery in 2021.

Kevin currently serves as the Chairman of Gen.G, an esports enterprise bridging Asia and North America. He was the founding CEO of Gen.G in 2017. Gen.G is the parent company of Seoul Dynasty in the Overwatch League, as well as the 2017 League of Legends world champions.

Previously, Kevin was CEO and founder of Kabam, a top developer of mobile games. Kevin led the company from business plan founding to over $400M in annual revenue serving over 500 million players. Kabam developed leading partnerships with Marvel, Star Wars, Fast & Furious, Lord of the Rings, and Hunger Games. Kabam was profitable from 2012 until the sale of the company's studios to Netmarble, 21st Century Fox, and GAEA, which in total generated nearly $1 billion in value. Early in his career, Kevin was a venture capitalist at Canaan Partners investing in consumer internet and digital media.

In 2017, Kevin and his wife Connie Chen made the largest gift UC Berkeley has ever received from any of its alumni under the age of 40 to fund the Connie & Kevin Chou Hall at Berkeley Haas.

He's been honored by Fortune in 40 under 40, CNN in Smartest People in Tech, and Business Insider's Silicon Valley Top 100. In 2019, Kevin was honored as UC Berkeley's Alumnus of the Year. Kevin graduated magna cum laude from the UC Berkeley undergraduate Haas School of Business program. He serves on the Board of Trustees at UC Berkeley.

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