Panic with Friends is taking a break. Today, the world is in a very different place from when we launched the podcast in March, 2020. We are continuing our content endeavor and created Trends with Friends to talk about market trends, dad life, luxury and wellness. Find our new show, Trends with Friends, on your favorite podcast platform. New episodes every Saturday. Spotify Apple Youtube Subscribe to my blog and follow me on Twitter. #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital...

In this re-run of Best of Panic, I had been dying to get Jan on the podcast. After my brief podcast break, I decided to have a lot of my friends on – people I like talking to about markets. Jan will always be one of those people. He’s super smart and well educated. I’m in the lucky position where I don’t have to be in the market, but because I’m fascinated by markets, started Stocktwits, love talking about them, and want to continue banging out some alpha, I invited Jan on the podcast.  We...

In this Best of Panic re-run from November 22’, Jim O’Shaughnessy came back for a record fourth appearance.  The previous time he was on, we talked about the real panic; I’d come back from vacation fired out of a cannon – only wanting to talk to my close friends or pimp some of our companies. But this time around I had a lot to talk to Jim about. He was guest number one on the show and since then the Fed had hiked another 75 basis points, Meta imploded (and has since turned around), and we...

On this episode of Panic with Friends, I speak with my good friend Chris Temple. Chris is the co-founder and director of Optimist, an award winning documentary and impact studio. In today’s episode we dive deep into his latest film called ‘This is not Financial Advice’ which I took on the role of being an Executive Producer.  In ‘This is not Financial Advice’, Glauber “Pro” Contessoto - an immigrant working multiple jobs and living in a 220-square–foot apartment - gambles his life savings on...

As I mentioned when I covered how I built Wallstrip, I’m doing more origin stories over the next year. I’m covering my own projects as well as those of the ten or fifteen people from the companies I’ve loved and the products I’ve used in Web 2. There were mostly good exits, but there were also a few that we learned from.  In today’s episode I’m back in the hot seat covering the lessons learned from building Stocktwits in a Web 2 world. Knut and Riley join me as we talk about what worked back...

No, you haven’t entered the Twilight Zone. Yes, I’m the host of Panic with Friends, but in today’s special episode, I’m the guest. My producer Knut Jensen has turned the tables and put me in the hot seat. With so many questions about how and why I started Wallstrip, I felt it was time to lay it all out. And hopefully this answers a lot of those questions.  We cover the good, the bad, and the funny times building my first internet company – and how those lessons carried over when I started...

When Knut and I started Panic with Friends at the beginning of the pandemic, it was just that – panicking with a few friends on what was happening in the market. I don’t think either of us knew how successful the podcast would become over three years later. My good friend Jeff RIchards of GGV Capital made several appearances on the show in the early days, but we last had him on in January of 2022. In that episode, Jeff helped me frame the selloff and gave me a big picture view on the...

Ben Hunt of Epsilon Theory is back on Panic for a record-breaking sixth time! He may be the smartest guy I know, which is why I keep having him on. He’s just an explainer – the way he explains things very easily – and I like complex things explained simply. Ben is a former Professor, a beekeeper, and a market lover. He’s the co-founder and CIO of Epsilon Theory, where he writes outstanding essays about narratives in the market – backed up by data. I wanted to catch up with him to weigh in on...

My good friend and fishing buddy Lewis Johnson of Capitol Wealth Advisors is back on Panic with Friends for a fourth round, slowly catching up to our leader, Ben Hunt. Way back when Lewis was first on the show rates were zero going to negative. When he was last here in November of 2022, we touched on the Madoff Moment that was FTX, and talked about how to position ourselves moving into 2023. Lewis understands cycles. As we head into the summer with gold breaking out into all-time highs, I...

There’s a massive unspoken epidemic going on globally in men’s health right now – low T-scores; and practically no one is talking about it. Lots of ‘youts’ are running around on an empty tank and don’t even know it. It’s an interesting and very important topic; and it's at the top of a lot of people’s minds, even if it’s a bit taboo to talk about. But it's something that matters to me, so I wanted to dive in deep and figure out what it all means. My guest today makes checking, monitoring, and...

In this episode, I’m back in the hot seat again while my producer Knut grills me on what I’m calling my ‘errors of omission’. It’s part of my plan this year to cover various points in my career. Previously I've discussed details on Wallstrip and Stocktwits. Both of those episodes answered a lot of the questions I've been asked over the years.  But one of the questions I’m asked most often as an investor and entrepreneur is, “Howard, what’s your biggest mistake, your biggest miss?” I’ve been...

I couldn’t be more excited to have my good friend Downtown Josh Brown on the show! Josh and I go way back to the early, early days of Stocktwits. He’s built what’s probably the biggest financial media brand outside of CNBCq and has managed to thrive amidst the people who like to hate on people who are doing well on social media; so I’ve got lots and lots of questions about the finance industry and media. We dig a bit into AI, crypto, web2 survivors, and where we’re at with web3. You’re going...

On this week's episode of Panic with Friends, I speak with Rob Koyfman, the co-founder and CEO of Koyfin, a platform that offers a range of resources for investors, enabling them to conduct stock research and stay updated on market trends. He started his career at Goldman Sachs Investment Research in 2002, where he embarked on a proprietary trading role in London afterward. Subsequently, Rob held titles such as head of Macro and Thematic Trading Strategy at Citigroup and served as a...

On this week's episode of Panic with Friends, I speak with Joe Gagnon. Joe is a seasoned adventurer, creator, and explorer, combining his entrepreneurial spirit with executive expertise as a COO/CEO for over two decades. Joe is currently the CEO of 1upHealth, a cloud-based data interoperability platform that is revolutionizing healthcare outcomes. He is also an active blogger and co-host of the Chasing Tomorrow podcast. Previously, he held the CEO position at Sparkcentral, specializing in...

On this week's episode of Panic with Friends I speak with Doug Hecht, the CEO and Co-founder of Walla, a modern studio management platform created to transform and simplify studio operations. Doug's entrepreneurial journey began as the CEO of Lymber, a wellness app start-up that was later acquired by MINDBODY. Following the acquisition, he took on the role of SVP of Consumer Products at MINDBODY, where he played a crucial role in developing the app and spearheading other digital initiatives....

On today’s episode of Panic with Friends, I speak to my good friend Jenny Fielding. After attending law school, Jenny found herself falling in love with technology first as a founder of two mobile companies and now as an early stage investor. She then spent nearly 8 years as the Managing Director at Techstars. After her time there, she set out to start her own global venture fund, Everywhere Ventures (formerly The Fund) where she is the Managing Partner. Throughout her career, she has...

On this week of Panic with Friends, I speak with Brooker Belcourt, founder of Covey. Brooker is a driven founder with extensive experience in the investment industry and a deep understanding of the needs he is looking to address. Prior to founding Covey, he previously worked at Citadel, Coatue Management, as well as Goldman Sachs, where he acquired valuable knowledge of the alpha capture and asset management industries. With limited resources and a lean team, Brooker has made significant...

On this week's episode of Panic with Friends I speak with Roy Rubin. Roy is the co-founder and former CEO of Magento, a digital commerce solution for merchants and brands. eBay acquired a 49 percent stake in Magento in February, 2011; followed by the acquisition of the entire company in June, 2011. Roy stayed on as the CEO of Magento until 2013. Later in February of 2021, Roy started R-Squared Ventures with his partner Roy Erez (who I previously had on the podcast) after having made countless...

On this episode of the Panic with Friends, I talk to Jud Valeski, co-founder and former CEO of Gnip. Jud started his career at Netscape right out of college, where he worked for three years. He then went on to AOL, where he worked for nearly seven years. Later, in 2006, in the early days of MySpace, Jud had the revelation that social media was going to be the next big thing. He believed that somewhere amidst the noise, there would be commercial value. Enter Gnip. Two years later, in 2008, Jud...

I’m always excited to interview a portfolio company founder on Panic with Friends, so I’m doubly excited to have Sharona Cohen, co-founder (her husband Nave is the other co-founder who I previously had on the pod) of DSTNC (Social Leverage Fund IV) on today’s show. The company is at the forefront of fashion and technology, or as I like to call it, ‘fashology’ – for the modern cyclist. DSNTC (pronounced 'distance' - vowels removed) is a first of its kind global marketplace and content...

I’m excited to finally have my friend Joe McCann on the show. He’s the founder of Asymmetric, a modern-day crypto fund. Joe’s probably one of the smartest people I follow on Twitter and I usually get caught up reading his monthly letters. I wanted to have Joe on the show and get his thoughts on navigating the crypto space. Nowadays most people have disdain for crypto, but the data will not go away. There’s still a lot of people with significant digital assets, including myself. And at Social...

When Knut and I started Panic with Friends at the beginning of the pandemic, it was just that – panicking with a few friends on what was happening in the market. I don’t think either of us knew how successful the podcast would become over three years later. My good friend Jeff RIchards of GGV Capital made several appearances on the show in the early days, but we last had him on in January of 2022. In that episode, Jeff helped me frame the selloff and gave me a big picture view on the...

Ben Hunt of Epsilon Theory is back on Panic for a record-breaking sixth time! He may be the smartest guy I know, which is why I keep having him on. He’s just an explainer – the way he explains things very easily – and I like complex things explained simply. Ben is a former Professor, a beekeeper, and a market lover. He’s the co-founder and CIO of Epsilon Theory, where he writes outstanding essays about narratives in the market – backed up by data. I wanted to catch up with him to weigh in on...

I’m excited to have another one of our portfolio company founders on this episode of Panic. Oana is the founder and CEO of Sequel.io, which allows organizations of all sizes to host live events and webinars right on their own website. It’s a no-code solution that lets marketers turn live video into leads by embedding events on their own websites. Coming from a marketing background at HP, Oana launched Sequel.io shortly before the pandemic to solve her own marketing pain points. And she’s...