Driven, curious and impact-focused, Jai Bhavnani is a hustler and member of the Academy’s newest freshman class: Cohort 7. Hailing from Mar Vista, Bhavnani sees the next four years as an opportunity to become his best self and explore the possible. With a passion for retooling and reimagining the way financial systems work, Bhavnani is setting the bar high for the coming year. This summer he co-founded the crypto hedge fund Rari Capital with a high school classmate which caught the attention of Forbes, and he’s looking to build on that success. So what’s next for Bhavnani? Read on...

What does being at the Academy mean to you? 
To me, being at the Academy is all about becoming the best version of myself. By being constantly surrounded by the amazing people in my cohort and even in the other cohorts, it constantly pushes me to do better and be better. Every interaction with teachers, the faculty and literally everyone here pushes me one step closer to becoming this better version of myself.

What is something about the way the world works that you'd like to disrupt? 
In my eyes, money is fundamentally broken. The government has destroyed the value of the dollar and continues to make it worse with every day that passes. I’d like to disrupt the entire financial system and democratize it beyond the few unelected leaders at the Federal Reserve to help prevent a nationwide collapse of the monetary system.

What are three goals you have this year? 
1. Get a minimum of $5 million dollars into my crypto hedge fund 
2. Make something that positively impacts at least 10,000 people 
3. Run at least 20 miles a week





Who is the most impressive entrepreneur alive today? Why?
 Jack Dorsey. Not only was he able to pivot his previous company into the worldwide phenomenon of Twitter, but he is actively the CEO of both Twitter and Square (more than $100 billion combined market cap.) His ability to seamlessly manage both organizations successfully is spectacular. Also, Dorsey is the last in a generation of so-called ‘tech gods’: people that align their work with spiritual responsibility like Steve Jobs and Nikolai Tesla. Dorsey truly wants to drive the world forward, instead of just pumping the share prices for investors.

What are some things you want to know about your future senior self? 
 I don’t want to know anything about my future self! I’ve seen too many time travel movies where it ends badly.

Describe one thing most people don’t know about you?> 
I’m partially color blind!

What is one thing your parents taught you that you’d like to share? 
 My parents taught me that the only thing that matters is that you believe in yourself.





What is a recent project you’ve worked on that you’re really proud of? 
This summer I started working on a crypto hedge fund (Rari Capital) and Forbes wrote a piece about us which was really cool. We were in the process of raising approximately $3.6 million from a few VC’s for the project but then we decided to decentralize the protocol and give it to the community.

What are the essential things you always keep in your backpack? 
My computer, at least two water bottles and a charger.

Favorite app, service or website? 
Twitter

If you could be best friends with one fictional character who would it be? 
Bobby Axelrod

Thanks, Jai!

Fresh Encounters: Jai Bhavnani