650: TREX FinTech $15M Raised, Breaks Down Securitized Loans From Renewable Energy Orginators So Investors Can Buy with CEO Benjamin Cohen

Benjamin Cohen. He's the CEO and leading T-REX, with a strong vision for the future of enterprise financial technology and its impact on marketing and making markets more transparent and efficient. He's built the T-REX team and the T-REX software platform by combining the most sustainable elements of finance with modern SaaS technology.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Influence
• What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— Between 6 and 7.5
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "I wished that I knew that not everything was of the utmost consequence for my entire life"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:24 – Nathan introduces Benjamin to the show
• 02:55 – T-REX is a fintech company that makes complex capital markets more liquid by making them more transparent and efficient
  • 04:04 – T-REX provides a familiar framework where their clients can slice and dice everything
  • 04:15 – "We're just making the risks more transparent"
• 04:20 – T-REX has an enterprise SaaS model
• 04:59 – Customers are paying $2k-20K per month depending on the functionalities they need
• 05:09 – Benjamin launched T-REX in 2012
• 05:55 – The Ecosystem Integrity Fund is T-REX's series A lead investor
• 06:12 – T-REX has raised $15M in total
  • 06:26 - T-REX had 2 priced equity rounds
• 06:32 – Team size is 21 and based in New York
  • 06:39 – Half of the team is based in Tel Aviv, Israel and are mostly software engineers
  • 06:57 – The cost of living in Israel is a bit lower
• 07:35 – T-REX has over 225 users
  • 07:51 – The 225 are all paying customers
• 08:28 – The model of T-REX is that investors are coming in and looking for different deals than what originators have out, which includes different loan portfolios—specifically in the renewable energy sector
• 09:34 – Loan's interest
• 09:44 – The secure ties
• 10:30 – Average MRR
• 11:13 – "I invested 2 years of my time before getting a dollar"
• 11:19 – It took Benjamin 2 years to raise capital
• 11:36 – Benjamin's fund was from his previous role in Macquarie Bank
• 12:12 – Renewable energy presented a great slate of a market
• 12:33 – Benjamin funded T-REX with a 6-figure capital
• 12:52 – A junior engineer's average salary from Tel Aviv
  • 13:53 – Everybody in the company has equity
• 14:03 – Benjamin is the sole-founder of T-REX
• 14:32 – Customer churn is currently zero
  • 14:54 – Benjamin is expecting T-REX to be incredibly sticky
• 15:20 – T-REX is selling additional seats and their customers can sell more modules
  • 15:29 – T-REX can expand horizontally to different markets and vertically where they can sell different models
• 15:50 – Years ago, T-REX has set up their own broker/dealers
• 16:05 – CAC is dependent on the customers
• 17:11 – T-REX will do a $10K conference sponsorship and they need to be there
• 17:35 – T-REX series B closed in November 15th
• 20:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Be in the space that you know best and don't fear being a solo founder.
2. It is actually GREAT to make mistakes and GREAT to fail, as long as you learn from it.
3. Don't fear that every decision you make or action you take has a lifelong consequence in your life—it simply isn't true.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan's life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn't waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives