Edikan Sports Academy

There is no such thing as self made.

When prediction markets were little more than an idea on Wall Street, Kalshi Inc. co-founder Luana Lopes Lara found inspiration in an unlikely place: the womb of Kylie Jenner.

It was early 2018 and the internet was abuzz with speculation as to whether Jenner, the reality TV star-turned-cosmetics-founder, was with child.

Lopes Lara was interning at Five Rings, a New York trading firm, learning the art of making markets. She asked her peers what they thought of the hype - sensing an opportunity to create a novel wager - but none of the other interns had even heard of Jenner.

The firm’s co-founder talks about the celebrity buzz that sparked her interest in prediction markets, the legal battles her firm faces and Jay-Z’s advice.

Kalshi & Deel were both in my YC batch.

Both are worth $10B+ today. Kalshi $22Billion.

Nobody cared.

Kalshi was building prediction markets. Nobody was talking about prediction markets. The regulatory path seemed impossible.

I remember Tarek Mansour telling me at the time how the leading prediction market was an academic nonprofit project run by a university in New Zealand, called PredictIt.

I heard Alex Bouaziz pitching cross-border crypto payments to contractors on Demo Day. Crypto. For payroll.

Meanwhile, everyone in YC was gossiping about ZeroDown, a rent-to-own real estate tech company.

They raised at an ~$80M valuation, basically 8x what Kalshi and Deel raised. They had a team with an impressive track record in tech.

Sam Altman personally led their round. They were so “ahead” of everyone else they skipped fundraising on Y Combinator Demo Day. Never even got on stage.

Kalshi got regulatory approval against all odds. Deel pivoted and became a giant. Both are $10B+ companies.

ZeroDown isn’t around.

Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara becomes self-made billionaire.

The prediction market platform’s meteoric rise turned a former ballerina into the youngest self-made woman billionaire at 29.

Kalshi’s valuation to $22 billion, pushing Lara’s estimated net worth to $2.6 billion.

That’s why company building is the greatest game on earth.

By 80eightyVC & Edikan Moses

In July 2021, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos awarded CNN contributor. & activist Van Jones a $100 million “Courage & Civility Award”.

The unrestricted, no-strings-attached grant allows Jones to disperse the funds over a 10-year period to charities, nonprofits, & initiatives of his choosing.

Jones has complete discretion over how the $100 million is distributed. He has primarily focused the funds on “trust-based giving,” flowing resources directly to underserved communities & grassroots organizations.

Financial support & stipends for formerly incarcerated individuals to help them transition back into society.

Jeff Bezos said he expects artificial intelligence to create a “labor shortage in the economy,” rejecting fears that the fast-evolving technology will put humans out of work as he launches a new venture aimed at making engineers more productive.

The billionaire founder of Amazon.com is co-leading a new AI business called Prometheus, which plans to build an “artificial general engineer” that can design and manufacture complex physical products such as a jet engine.

The new startup by Jeff Bezos seeks to build an “artificial general engineer” that can design and manufacture complex physical products.

“When Jeff Bezos gives you $100 million with no oversight committee, no bureaucracy, that’s not just philanthropy – that’s an investment in trust-based giving at its highest level,” says Dwayne Ashley, CEO & Founder of Bridge Philanthropic Consulting. “This represents exactly the kind of unrestricted funding that we advocate for with our clients. It’s philanthropy that actually empowers rather than constrains.”

Van Jones is a lawyer, activist, & social entrepreneur who co-founded Dream Corps, an organization laser-focused on dismantling oppressive systems & expanding access to opportunities. His background spans criminal justice reform, environmental justice, & economic opportunity creation.

Bezos Bats Down Al Job Loss Fears While Launching New Venture. New startup Prometheus seeks to build ‘artificial general engineer’ that can design and manufacture complex physical products.

By 80eightyVC & Moses Space Company

Before the whole world shut down in March 2020, due to the Covid pandemic 19 shutdowns, i met Casey Qadir is the CEO of Hubly Surgical, a company she co-founded while a student at Northwestern University.

Casey is transforming neurosurgical safety with the Hubly Drill —the first single-use cranial drill with automated safety features that prevent catastrophic over-plunge injuries during ventriculostomies, one of the most common yet dangerous neurosurgical procedures.

I was heading to Berkeley, California after a Venture Capitalist class in San Francisco, California & due to how late & busy the City was I was unable to get a solo rideshare car from either or .

So i ordered an Uberpool, the ETA was only like 10minutes different & the driver only had to pick up one more person after he picked my trick up, so I requested the ride from .

The driver starts our trip back to the East Bay, California, he picks up Casey who was headed home to Emeryville, California.

I & Casey started talking about life, & what we were doing with our individual lives on this trip across the Bay Bridge, California on a scenic night.

Casey told me she had a start up company that drilled holes in the skulls of humans, & that she was headed back to school for her masters because she had just graduated & started a business.

She wasn’t even scared at all of seating with an African man on a late trip to the East Bay, California.

I didn’t tell her I was a Venture Capitalist, I told her I was headed to Berkeley, California for & , to get some rest for tomorrow’s class session.

The whole world shut down in the next immediate Month of March 2020, with stay at home restrictions, social distancing measures, & facemasks requirements.

Thrilled to share that Casey Qadir - founder & CEO of our portfolio company Hubly Surgical, has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list for 2026.

By &

damikujembola & I attended Pastor Toure Robert’s Church in Los Angeles, California because we both dating sisters at the same damn time in Toyin Ogunleye & Adura Tayo Ogunleye ~ Said Man!

The past few days have been something. We’ve never been one to go after press or seek fame for the work we do. The focus has always been on the brand & the culture.

So it was very humbling getting this interview from & . However, the most surprising thing was the response from you guys, our tribe! | really just want to appreciate everyone for the texts, reshares and love! It has been overwhelming. It is great to know that the work we are doing is actually been seen.

Also want to thank the squad for putting in work daily to make this possible. There is definitely no Timi & Dami without you! We are small but mighty and I truly believe there is nothing we can’t do.



As CEO of Amplify Africa, Dami Kujembola is on a mission to create global representation for African talent and the diaspora, & connect them to their homeland.

The contribution of the African diaspora to the continent’s GDP cannot be emphasized enough. A total of $45 billion was remitted to sub-Saharan Africa in 2021 accounting for a 6.2% increase from the previous year according to the World Bank.

Dami Kujembola, the CEO & Co-founder of Amplify Africa, is the man on a mission to harness these resources & connections further & bring about economic impact in Africa.

“A Congresswoman offered to speak at the first event and gave us certificates that legitimized our events and we started hosting the Afro ball gala in partnership with her office.

At its core, Amplify is an entertainment/media company, born out of Kujembola’s passion for entertainment law & providing better representation and red-carpet treatment for African artists who travel to Hollywood to receive prestigious awards like the BET Awards.

From there, the parties got bigger & more prestigious, such as when they partnered with the United States Congress to throw a gala as a way to promote Africa to the world.

By &

Champion Agent for Dion “Champ Cheese 🧀 “ Waiters in 2020 🫵🏽 turned Venture Capitalist by .

Omri Casspi is an NBA Champion turned Venture Capitalist.

Omri Casspi & Dion Waiters were teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2012-2013 & 2014-2015 NBA seasons. Both players are now retired from professional basketball.

Their Time in Cleveland

• Initial Overlap: Casspi was acquired by the Cavaliers from the Sacramento Kings in 2011.
Shortly after, Waiters was drafted 4th overall by Cleveland

Teammate Dynamics: The pair played under head coach Byron Scott, providing wing depth during Kyrie Irving’s early seasons. Casspi’s role fluctuated, & he eventually left to join the Houston Rockets, but they reunited briefly during the 2014-2015 season before Casspi was waived & subsequently signed with the Pelicans.

Omri Casspi finished his career back in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv, officially retiring in 2021 as the first Israeli-born player in the NBA.

Dion Waiters: Proved to be a microwave scorer, later having notable stints with the Oklahoma City Thunder & the Miami Heat. He signed with the Los Angeles Lakers during their 2020 championship run before concluding his NBA career.

PointFive just raised a $60M Series B led by Accel. $100M
raised to date.

Every company is now an Al company. Which means every company is about to meet a compute bill it never budgeted for - cloud, data platforms, model inference, and now coding agents running around the clock inside the enterprise. Most teams cannot see where the money actually goes.

That is the gap PointFive closes. The Al Efficiency OS, from the cloud to coding agents. It continuously improves efficiency across cloud infrastructure, data platforms, Al workloads, and agents, puts spend in plain language anyone can understand, and ships optimizations at scale.

Proud to be backing Alon Arvatz, Gal Ben David, and Amir Hozez, alongside Accel, Index Ventures, Salestorce Ventures, Entrée Capital.

By &