Thank you Arie Abecassis for the introduction to our guest today Eric Doty, founder of Loupe. Loupe is a free app built for the modern sports card collector. We talk about box breaks, how he thinks about the sports card collecting market, solving the classic chicken or the egg, supply/demand trap early on and his approach to leadership.

A couple of books that inspired Eric:

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Factfulness by Hans Rosling

Here are some of the questions I ask Eric:

What was your attraction to entrepreneurship and collecting cards?
If they can do it, I can do it.
What was the insight that led you to founding Loupe?
Take us to that moment of what led you to focus on Loupe full time?
Describe to us what box breaks are for those who aren't familiar?
How do you think about trust and accountability? Validating cards in the break are legitimate?
How are communities created on Loupe?
How did you approach growth early on?
What was your approach to fundraising?
What were some of the biggest hurdles or question marks potential investors had?
What was it like fundraising during COVID?
Influencer
What's one thing you would change when it came to venture capital?
Do you have room limits?
What's the best piece of advice you've received?
How has that impacted you a leader or as a CEO?
How do you think about communication amongst your team?
Is it hard to build culture
What's one piece of advice for founders?

Eric Doty (Loupe) - Building the world's largest community of sports card collectors