In a world being reshaped by artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, the biggest wealth creation opportunities of the next decade may already be unfolding right before our eyes. In this episode, Brett Swarts sits down with globally recognized investor, futurist, and Fifth Era CEO Matthew Le Merle to explore how AI, digital assets, and decentralized technologies are transforming industries, capital markets, and the future of investing. From emerging venture trends to the rise of tokenization and exponential innovation, Matthew shares what investors and entrepreneurs need to understand to stay ahead in the Fifth Era economy.
Whether you’re a business owner preparing for a liquidity event, an investor seeking asymmetric upside, or simply curious about where the next generation of tech giants will emerge, this conversation delivers powerful insights into the intersection of innovation and wealth creation. Matthew breaks down how smart capital is positioning itself for the AI and blockchain revolution — and why those who understand these shifts early may have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create impact and long-term financial freedom.
Episode Highlights Here:
Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I would invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward, scale to billions, and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support, it’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Welcome to the Build to Billions podcast, where we guide successful entrepreneurs and investors on their journey from millions to billions. We believe the key to scaling and compounding your wealth and life starts every single day with a mindset and practice of stewardship over ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. Our ultimate goal is to be scale and compound your wealth in life, so you can give more all the way to help MDPs. My name is Brett Schwartz. Each and every episode, we’re joined by the world’s top entrepreneurs, millionaires or billionaires, and they share their secrets, insights, and wisdom with us, so we can gain more leverage, more impact, and more momentum. I’m excited about our next guest, I think, originally from the UK, now he’s residing mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he’s, he’s on a, he’s going to teach us a little bit about how to invest into AI and blockchain. He’s got a really unique company and a really unique background. He’s the CEO and managing partner of Fifth Era, including blockchain, and Fifth Area is a specialized asset manager, providing access to exceptional technologies that a retransforming, transforming the world. Fifth Era specializes in investment strategies, which construct portfolios hard to access funds and direct investments with the emphasis on AI and blockchain. And their strategies are now in the 10th year and are backed by 400 plus investors globally, and so much more. Please welcome to the show with me, Matthew Lamolo. Matthew, how did I do on the last name finishing issue?
Matthew
That’s fine, Brett. Thank you very much. Good to be here.
Bret
for our listeners who get to know for the first time, would you give us a little bit more about your story and your current focus?
Matthew
Yeah, I’m happy to, Brett. Let me start with today. Today I am managing partner of Fifth Era, and within that we have blockchain co-investors, we are, as you just mentioned, venture capitalists focused on early stage direct investing, as well as mid and late stage for emerging unicorns of the blockchain and AI space, and this is something we’ve been doing for 15 or so years, we’re fortunate to be investors in about 80 unicorns, most of which we got exposure to in the early stage through the strategies you and I will talk about, but my journey began, as you pointed out, in the UK, started off with McKinsey and Consulting in London, got sent to America alongside what the person that became my wife, later Alison Davis. We went to Stanford, go tour MBAs, decided to stay on for a little while, and a little while became the rest of our lives here in California, and in the US. Allison became CFO of BGI, which is now BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Became a private equity investor. I became a venture capital investor, and our focus was internet, fintech, and digital content, which obviously, for those of you who are familiar, you know that those have morphed over time into being advanced computing, AI, and blockchain, and digital finance. So, that’s what we invest in today, but we’ve been investing in similar spaces for a long, long time.
Brett
Excellent. So, let’s just dive into the topic at hand, which is investing in AI and blockchain. What would you say is the number one, you know, key principle when you’re looking at investing into AI and blockchain.
Matthew
Yes, so, so you know, for us, the these are areas that are ubiquitous and inevitable, and as a venture investor, any venture investor, what you’re looking for are innovations and
technologies that you believe the entire world or a large portion of the world is going to be using in the future. It’s often very hard to be sure about, you know, when that will happen, you know, will it be a five year, 10 year, 20 year migration, but if you’re confident that the new technologies and innovations will eventually be used, you’re already in a position to place some capital against inevitable future and strong tailwinds, and for us, the moment that we could see that blockchain was going to enable all the world’s monies, commodities, and assets to be digitalized, and they were going to open up a world of real-time, frictionless, low-cost finance. We went all in on blockchain. In the case of AI, we,
Brett
So if you like this little, short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch stuff. Fullinterview, and please don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody
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About Matthew Le Merle
Matthew Le Merle is a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist, futurist, and internationally recognized expert in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies. He is the Managing Partner and CEO of Fifth Era, an investment and advisory platform focused on helping investors and entrepreneurs capitalize on the transformative opportunities created by exponential technologies. Matthew also leads blockchain-focused investment initiatives that provide exposure to some of the world’s fastest-growing innovation ecosystems, with underlying investments spanning hundreds of venture-backed technology companies and digital asset projects globally.
Over the course of his career, Matthew has advised and led organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high-growth startups, holding leadership roles with firms including McKinsey & Company, A.T. Kearney, and Gap Inc.. A prolific author, speaker, and strategist, he has co-authored multiple books on innovation, blockchain, and the future of capital markets, and is widely known for helping investors navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, decentralized finance, and next-generation venture investing.
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