Financial Freedom, Company Building, More with David Marcus

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Nov 28, 2023

David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark, shares his extensive experience in the tech and finance sectors, including his pivotal roles at PayPal and Facebook. The conversation dives into the evolution of payment systems and the shift from Web2 to Web3, emphasizing the importance of decentralization for financial freedom. Marcus also discusses the future of Bitcoin, the challenges of navigating regulatory landscapes, and valuable lessons for startup founders, highlighting the need for resilience in this ever-changing industry.

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ANECDOTE

Libra's Conception

David Marcus initially proposed Libra as an external project with Facebook holding a minority stake.
He believed doing it within Facebook would be an uphill battle due to reputational issues.

INSIGHT

Find Your Fury, Fix the World

Find the thing that genuinely angers you about the world and fix it.
David Marcus's focus is building an open internet payment protocol because current systems are unfair and leave people behind.

INSIGHT

Payments Need an Internet Revolution

Current payment systems are like pre-internet telecoms, with limited access and high costs.
Many lack access to stable financial systems and face high inflation and government devaluation, highlighting the need for better systems.

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with @davidmarcus @smc90

This wide-ranging conversation covers company building, big to small -- including what cadence and when is the right "time" to ship; the relationship between centralization, decentralization, platforms, and financial freedom; moving from web2 to web3 in both crypto AND payments... as well as why bitcoin, views on remote work, and much much more.

Our guest is David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark; Marcus was also a co-creator of Diem (aka Libra and Novi, the cryptocurrency project initiated by Facebook). Before that, he was vice president of messaging products there, where he ran the Facebook Messenger unit; and prior to joining Facebook, Marcus was the former president of PayPal (which had acquired his previous startup).

This episode begins with an interview just to help kick things off and then features a rich set of questions from the audience -- as this originally took place live on stage at our Crypto Startup School 2023.

As a reminder: none of this should be taken as investment, legal, business, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information -- including a link to a list of our investments.