Brandon Arvanaghi, CEO of Meow, is a fintech innovator who transformed his venture from a money-burning crypto firm to a profitable enterprise. He advocates ditching the VC treadmill, emphasizing lean operations and profitability over high-risk growth. Brandon likens Meow to âCostco for financial services,â focusing on low prices and customer savings. He critiques the herd mentality of VCs and highlights the importance of real, sustainable innovation. His insights challenge the glamorized startup narrative, promoting resilience and long-term success instead.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
VC Behavior
A VC offered $4 million, then rescinded the offer when Meow's Series A seemed less promising.
The VC later reaffirmed their commitment after Meow secured term sheets from reputable investors.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Meow's Pivot
Meow pivoted from crypto to fintech after the Series A.
They returned customer funds from crypto lending desks due to rumors about Three Arrows Capital.
insights INSIGHT
Valuation Pressure
Brandon Arvanaghi believes high valuations pressure companies to raise prices and prioritize growth over customer value.
He contrasts this with Meow's focus on low prices and customer savings.
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This week we sat down with Brandon Arvanaghi from Meow.com to discuss his journey from money burning crypto company to profitable fintech. His tweet last year about hitting the profitability milestone had some obvious, and some less intuitive, take aways from their experience. Everything from opting out of the VC treadmill to applying the Costco model to low margin financial services.
Some other key takeaways:
- Brandon built Meow to $1B+ in assets with just 12 people by rejecting Silicon Valleyâs âgrowth at all costsâ playbook. His secret? Being profitable and savage about staying lean. âThe future is lean - you canât go from 1000 people down to 10 and pass back savings, but you can stay lean from the start.â - Brandonâs building Meow like âCostco for financial servicesâ - focusing on rock-bottom prices and passing savings to customers vs the typical VC-backed approach of sneakily raising prices to hit growth targets. He believes in 5-6 years, when pricing becomes fully transparent, this will be the only way to compete. - âVCs are lemmingsâ â Brandon says the 18-month runway advice is a psyop to keep founders dependent on VCs. He argues most VCs just follow each other and care more about looking good to their LPs than helping build real businesses. The rare exceptions? Maybe 1 in 20 VCs. - âStay in the game, win the gameâ - Brandon argues real innovation doesnât require betting on non-existent markets. His advice? Pick obvious bets without market risk, stay profitable, and make them 10x better through execution. âHow can you not make a generational outcome if you just keep pushing the ball forward?â
Big thanks to Brandon for really going there with us. He shares lived experience around many of the ideas we've been advocating for at indie for years. To see someone so fully embrace those ideas and find incredible success on the other side is great validation for others wishing they could go their own way too.
We hope you enjoy listening to this one as much as we enjoyed recording it.
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