Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes

Meet Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, the CEO of Softhread, an IT company providing industry-agnostic, environment-agnostic, and platform-agnostic software that enables companies to manage highly confidential data with their networks, environments, and devices securely and effectively. eet Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes, the CEO of Softhread, an IT company providing industry-agnostic, environment-agnostic, and platform-agnostic software that enables companies to manage highly confidential data with their networks, environments, and devices securely and effectively.

Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes is a healthcare executive, futurist, and globalist who is highly dedicated to digital and ethics advocacy. She is a Forbes Business Council member, digital strategist, passionate educator, entrepreneurship ecosystem builder, board advisor, and consultant.

Additionally, Dr. Vasiliu- Feltes was appointed to the Board of Advisors for multiple companies, and she also serves as an Expert Advisor to the EU Blockchain Observatory Forum. During her long academic career, she taught multiple courses and provided more than 100 academic lectures, seminars, grand rounds, and over 100 faculty development courses.

She has held several leadership positions during her long career and is a member of many prestigious organizations. Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes is also the Founder and CEO of The Science, Entrepreneurship, and Investments Institute, Founder & CEO of Revexpo Consulting. She is presently serving as a Country Director for WBAF USA, Senator of WBAF, Faculty Member of the WBAF Business School- Division of Entrepreneurship, and teaching the Executive MBA Business Technology Course at the UM Business School.

The Journey

After her career in healthcare and life sciences as a healthcare executive, researcher, and clinician, Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes has earned her Executive MBA and immersed herself in the world of business. Her professional endeavors are currently at the intersection of science, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes has always been fascinated by various large-scale complex problems as a business leader. While advancing through her career, she learned how science, innovation, and technology are driving the global economy. She also understood the need to continuously learn new skills to leverage the technology, which often significantly impacts business and entrepreneurship.

Preserving Confidentiality and Optimizing Network Security

Softhread uses a patent-pending blockchain and AI-enabled platform named Chios™ to preserve confidentiality and optimize network security while enhancing operational efficiency. Through its decentralized system, which empowers state-of-the-art interoperability, Softhread builds scalable solutions that are entirely customizable, cloud-enabled, industry-agnostic, cloud-independent, and optimize the ROI of data management.

Softhread has developed its innovative, patent-pending blockchain platform Chios™, to enable the secure decentralization of any data owned by individuals, devices, networks, and other regulated workloads. Built on top of a massively adopted Hyperledger Fabric permissioned blockchain technology, Softhread’s patent-pending Chios™ platform has been specially designed for confidential computing and compliance requirements of various highly regulated industries, like healthcare, space, life sciences, energy, insurance, and government technology, which can benefit from the comprehensive zero-trust solution.

The firm’s existing projects and ongoing relationships with many technology companies have already demonstrated its capabilities in the areas of life sciences, healthcare, smart cities, space industries, and cybersecurity.

As a globalist and the founder of the non-profit Institute SEI, she aims to fulfill a vision to be a catalyst for scientific and digitally driven entrepreneurship and promote sustainable economic growth. The institute's mission is to contribute to state-of-the-art knowledge sharing and provide educational resources, and become a premier data intelligence, data analytics, and data-driven decision support partner for key stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Institute works as a Think Tank and has collaborated with other global, not-for-profit organizations which are aligned with the UN SDG 2030 Agenda and promotion of social entrepreneurship.

A Unique Industry

Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes says, “We are currently likely experiencing the cusp of the 5th industrial revolution.”

She feels these unprecedented times call for various innovative solutions and approaches to manage a volatile postpandemic global business environment and for business leaders to adapt to major emerging technology mega-trends that will eventually disrupt the way people live, work, and educate and entertain themselves as a society.

Picture of the Future

Dr. Vasiliu-Feltes and her team are looking forward to executing their new strategic direction and speeding up the development of new commercial solutions in its portfolio. She is also thrilled to be able to continue forging new long-term collaborative relationships with various key stakeholders in the web 3.0 and smart cities business ecosystem.

Suggestions for Younger Self

When we requested Dr. VasiliuFeltes to provide some suggestions for new entrepreneurs, she said, “Ethics and purpose are key in the digital era. Ethical and purpose -driven leaders are poised to achieve long-term success and maintain their competitive advantage in the new post-pandemic economy.”

To deliberate on the growth & opportunities in the Indian plant-based foods space, the Plant-Based Foods Industry Association (PBFIA) organised the 1st Plant-Based Foods Summit in Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi, on 26th May 2022. The summit was supported by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) and The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority of India (APEDA). It was a one-of-a-kind summit in India, bringing together the whole ecosystem of the plant-based foods sector, including business leaders and government policy reformers, under one roof. In addition, the summit successfully represented a convention of plant-based food entrepreneurs and scientists, allowing for the exchange of ideas.

The Honourable Minister of State for Food Processing Industries and Jal Shakti, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, graced the 1st Plant-Based Foods Summit with his presence and meaningful remarks. He believes that the Indian plant-based food business will expand rapidly and that minimal compliance requirements, scientific measurements, and supply chain strengthening will be required.

As part of the Eat Right Movement, Ms. Inoshi Sharma, the Executive Director of FSSAI, emphasised the possibilities of plant-based foods in terms of long-term safe, healthy, and sustainable food items. She addressed the need for plant-based food firms to work and improve compliance by lowering the salt, sugar, and fat content in their products. In the last 10-15 years, India has acquired a global presence that has influenced the domestic landscape. Dr. Sudhanshu, Secretary APEDA, highlighted India's plant-based food capabilities, including some indigenous crops in which India already ranks high in terms of output. By generating value-added items, India can easily conduct business and meet global demand. With the growing popularity of plant-based foods, India is well-positioned to provide all of the essential raw materials and skilled labour.

Furthermore, Dr. Sudhanshu unveiled the pivotal position paper by PBFIA titled "The Dawn of a Plant-Based Age: India to lead the way to world food security and nutrition ." The report presents an outline of the worldwide plant-based foods market as well as prospective chances for India to become a global leader in food security and nutrition. The goal of this PBFIA flagship publication is to increase awareness among Indian officials about the need to support India's growing plant-based foods sector.

The summit also attracted over 40 plant-based food start-ups of India who showcased their products for the tasting, including several women entrepreneurs who are propelling the industry forward; 400 delegates attended from some of the important organisations, including APEDA, FSSAI, FICCI, CII, FICSI, NIFTEM, Kerry, Symrise, Symega, Viscofan, Buhler, ITC, GoodDot, Mother Dairy, Ahimsa VC, Urban Platter, Epigamia, Blue Tribe Foods, Wakao Foods, Roquette and many more.

Overall, the summit represented the emergence of a powerful voice in India in favour of plant-based foods. The growth in the plant-based industry is expanding rapidly, and India is quickly becoming "a burgeoning market. As a result, the scope for an industry based on three principles: humane, health, and the environment are enormous.

Ellie Perlman is a real estate investor owning various multifamily properties across the U.S. She is the founder and CEO of Blue Lake Capital, a real estate investment firm specializing in multifamily acquisition and management. At Blue Lake Capital, Ellie helps her investors grow their wealth by investing alongside her in various large multifamily deals.

Ellie grew up in poverty, being the oldest child in a family of six. She got her first job cleaning synagogues when she was nine. Ellie always wanted more and had a burning desire to succeed and break the poverty chain.

At the age of 19, she married her high school sweetheart. Initially, both struggled greatly, but after a lot of hard work and motivation, Ellie joined the best law school in Israel. Later she got a job at a prestigious law firm, working round the clock on fascinating real estate transactions until she found her eyesight distorted because of a disease that nearly left her blind. However, Ellie's eyesight was restored after a painful and lengthy healing process. At that point, she was determined to live her life to the fullest.

After recovering from her eye disease, she took time to reflect on her life and soon realized that she didn't want to practice law any further; instead, she wanted to join the real estate industry. Ellie knew real estate was her ticket out of poverty, but she didn't know how exactly. So, she decided to leave her job as a lawyer and became a property manager, keeping tabs on more than 300 properties. Her internal fire then pushed her even further, and a few years later, Ellie joined MIT to pursue her MBA degree. After graduation, she pivoted her career and became a real estate investor and entrepreneur.

Influencing Factors

While growing up in poverty, Ellie swore that her kids would not experience the reality she had gone through. She says, "When I was about 11 years old, I decided I would have a different future. I didn't know how. Over the years, I learned that the richest families in the world had one thing in common: they all owned real estate. But I was certain I needed money to invest in real estate, which I didn't have then."

After graduating from MIT, Ellie founded Blue Lake Capital, where she buys multifamily properties across the U.S. while raising money from investors, overseeing the management of the assets, and executing renovations to increase rents and streamline expenses, until it's time to sell after roughly 2-5 years.

Harnessing the Power of Commercial Real Estate Investing

Since its inception in 2017, Blue Lake Capital has grown to over $750M AUM. The organization creates the path for extraordinary living, primarily by harnessing the tremendous power of commercial real estate investing, combined with technology in underwriting and elite management of multifamily properties to create opportunities to help its investors grow and thrive.

The organization buys, operates, and sells multifamily assets across the U.S. while raising money from investors to purchase those assets.

Tackling Challenges

Ellie sees challenges as an opportunity to learn, grow and improve. Like most other companies, the challenge of capitalizing on a business, creating a sustainable and efficient process, and building the right team can be difficult. Still, Ellie finds creating wealth and building a future for not just herself but her team and investors to be thrilling.

Ellie and her team rely upon A.I. technology for underwriting data and seek to implement additional cutting-edge technology as it becomes available in the organization's processes and properties. She says, "We are currently evaluating how to further advance our green policies and practices in our property communities to create healthier, more sustainable, and more community-enriching practices."

Current Market Landscape

Although the real estate industry was highly competitive and tight, recently, it has started showing early signs of softening. Ellie believes that with the rising inflation and the Fed's rising interest rates, the market can soon witness a correction. She feels there will be more opportunities to purchase assets at a discount from owners who have overpaid for their assets. On the other hand, unlike the residential market in 2007, where investors could purchase a single-family home at a discount if they had cash, it makes little sense to pay in cash when it comes to large multifamily properties. Ellie says, "The multifamily lending scene has been more challenging than before; Increasing interest rates and lower LTVs play a significant role in the ability to make a smart purchase and seize opportunities."

Achievement

Ellie is proud that despite having grown up in challenging economic circumstances, she put herself through law school in Israel, transitioned her career in property management, and then earned a scholarship that helped her attend MIT for her MBA. This incredible journey has given her the strength to bring Blue Lake Capital where it is today.

Since its foundation in 2017, in less than 5 years, Blue Lake Capital was able to exit 6 deals, with an average IRR to investors of 31%.

Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

Ellie advises young entrepreneurs by saying, "The difference between dreamers and achievers is that achievers take the first step and stick to it. It's as simple as that. Don't let fear talk you out of doing something big. Others will advise you against it, but they are also motivated by fear. After all, fear is the thing that keeps us from the pain of failing because you can't fail what you don't do. Don't listen to that voice; acknowledge it and thank it for its attempts, but listen to the other voice that pushes you forward and take action."