Business
On this episode of the Superpowers podcast, Bill and Chris talk with Howard Lindzon, Founder and Partner at Social Leverage. Howard is a kind-hearted Canadian entrepreneur, author, and investor whose superpower is his social intelligence and self-understanding. A product of his Jewish upbringing in Toronto, Howard calls himself a “Larry David meets venture capital.” He had a lot of side hustles as a kid and tried his hand at stand-up comedy as a teen. Eventually he earned his MBA from ASU and started his career as a stockbroker in Dallas. One day Howard cold-called an entrepreneur to pitch stocks, but the conversation took a turn. He ended up partnering with the businessman on a stress ball startup called, “The Grip.” That experience taught Howard valuable lessons in running a business, which he applied when founding a hedge fund shortly after, only to discover quickly that he preferred the lifestyle of angel investing. “I had a pretty good eye for picking winners,” Howard told the Bill and Chris. After one of Howard’s investments flourished, he built a relationship with the founder and collaborated with him to build StockTwits, a platform for investors. As Howard described, “It’s basically Twitter for investors.” A year later, Howard founded Social Leverage to advise and invest in promising tech startups. He wanted to invest in the things he cared about that make a positive difference in people’s lives. Social Leverage’s core goals include elevating the conversation on investing and educating more people on how to navigate startups.