Sheel Mohnot is the Co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures, an early stage fintech focused fund leading rounds in pre-seed and seed-stage companies.
Our conversation weaves through Sheel’s two decades of building and investing in fintech, starting BTV, and why they started a fintech-focused accelerator, The Mint.
Fun facts on Sheel, he was a contestant on the Zoom Bachelor during COVID lockdowns, in a Justin Bieber music video, got married in the Taco Bell Metaverse, and was once banned from Uber.
We talk lessons competing against Stripe before selling his first company, common fintech startup pitfalls, and the trick every VC should use when fundraising.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:13) Why fintech makes disproportionate positive change
(07:49) Most interesting opportunities in fintech today
(09:09) The accountant shortage
(12:59) Common early fintech startup pitfalls
(16:09) Building Fee Fighters to cut payment processing fees
(21:15) Lessons competing with Stripe
(21:57) Getting acquired by Groupon and adding $600m in market cap
(25:11) Biggest first-time startup mistakes
(29:21) Getting $10k in Uber credit via paid Google ads
(32:13) Investing in Flexport
(36:19) Navigating hot vs underhyped rounds
(43:39) Sheel’s domain auction company
(53:18) How he started angel investing
(54:57) Spotify acquiring his podcast “The Pitch”
(59:55) Why accelerators succeed and fail
(01:06:07) The Mint, BTV’s fintech-focused accelerator
(01:09:56) Camp BTV in the Santa Cruz Mountains
(01:11:41) Early days of NerdWallet
(01:14:55) Raising $75m BTV Fund 1 with Jake to fill a gap in the market
(01:18:36) Understanding Fund of Funds incentives
(01:22:15) References in VC fundraising
(01:24:02) $150m BTV Fund 2
(01:27:13) Importance of following-on when leading rounds
Referenced:
BTV: https://www.btv.vc/
The Mint: https://www.themint.vc/
Fee Fighters: https://techcrunch.com/2011/09/23/feefighters-launches-payment-gateway-samurai/
Follow Sheel:
Twitter: https://x.com/pitdesi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smohnot/
Follow Turner:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak
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