40: Andrew D'Souza, CEO of Clearbanc

For an industry that has made its mark on funding disruption, venture capital hasn't changed much over the past 30 years. With new entrants (cue: Softbank) and discussions about venture dollars primarily pouring into real estate and customer acquisition, it has become more common to question whether venture capital is the right type of capital for all stages of a business. Why do we treat businesses as black and white binary entities? Equity or debt. That's it.

Enter Clearbanc - Clearbanc is building an alternative capital source for entrepreneurs. The company has raised $300M+ and funded thousands of entrepreneurs. Andrew and I chatted about why Clearbanc is a truly differentiated source of capital, at what point is it most applicable and when does it become more preferable to traditional equity or debt. 

Clearbanc's innovation has significant potential implications for the entire venture market. If you believe in the premise that equity capital is best suited to fund risk and experimentation and a new source of capital (a la what Clearbanc provides) is best suited to fund repeatable growth, a new asset class has the potential to right size how we think about segments of capital markets.

Our conversation extended well beyond the nuts and bolts of the capital stack - we got knee deep into startup operations. We talked pivots (Clearbanc started the business focused on Uber drivers!), hiring, building in Toronto and the pros/cons vs. being based in Silicon Valley, unique operating practices at Clearbanc and why the company's culture is a mix of Lululemon and Bridgewater.