It’s May 1975. The SEC just enacted deregulation of brokerage commissions. The SEC mandates negotiated commission rates for all securities transactions. Sensing an opportunity, many brokerage firms raise commissions. Chuck Schwab decides to head in the other direction. He creates a discount brokerage to attract customers at lower fees. Chuck…

You probably remember exactly where you were when your favorite team won the Super Bowl or when they won that huge game to take them to the playoffs. Heck, if you were a (long-suffering) Washington Football Team fan like me, you might have even gone to WFT’s practice facility at…

Category defining companies in the alternative assets space Michael Sidgmore is a Partner and Co-Founder at Broadhaven Ventures, a global FinTech VC that is an early investor in Carta, MoneyLion, Credijusto, Kovi, Nowports, Liveoak (acq. by DocuSign), and others. Michael was previously a pre-product employee at iCapital Network, where he…

The era of ‘alt alt’ assets Michael Sidgmore is a Partner and Co-Founder at Broadhaven Ventures, a global FinTech VC that is an early investor in Carta, MoneyLion, Credijusto, Kovi, Nowports, Liveoak (acq. by DocuSign), and others. Michael was previously a pre-product employee at iCapital Network, where he helped build…

One week he was traveling around the country for meetings. Next thing I knew, I was giving a speech about how much my dad meant to me. Really the only thing I remember from the funeral was being awash with emotion. I couldn’t think straight. …

The car you’re driving, the phone you’re using, the clothes you’re wearing were, at one point, most likely transported by a maritime container and shipped across the ocean so that a company could sell those goods to a consumer. Virtually everyone in the world benefits from shipping, yet we take…

On a recent trip, I arrived in Charleston, South Carolina for a conference two hours away near Hilton Head. I requested a car from a ridesharing app as I left the airport. I was greeted by a friendly, middle-aged driver, in her Toyota Camry, and I asked if it was…

Ride hailing apps like Uber, Lyft, and Didi Chuxing have unlocked an economic opportunity with the push of a button on a smartphone. Millions of people can now open an app and earn income by taking passengers from point A to point B. …

Fundraising is possibly one of the hardest things that an entrepreneur has to do. It’s also one of the most important. The investors that an entrepreneur chooses to work with in each fundraising round will have a long-lasting impact on the future of their business. As a seed stage investor…