SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders 743: Will 28yo Privacy.com Founder Replace Credit Cards?
Aug 6, 2017
19:32
Bo Jiang. He's the co-founder and CEO of Privacy.com, a new way to transact online without showing your credit card number or pin. He previously worked on mobile products with Hatch Labs, which is the venture studio that incubated Tinder and Pixie TV, which was acquired by Samsung. He holds a BS in Mathematics in MIT.
Famous Five:
- Favorite Book? – High Output Management and Who
- What CEO do you follow? – Charlie Munger
- Favorite online tool? — Zoom
- How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7
- If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Pay attention and see things through"
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 01:34 – Bo has always been interested with Bitcoin and Krypto frequency where the idea of Privacy came from
- 01:56 – Privacy was a side project in Bitcoin
- 02:00 – Bo didn't pay anything for Privacy
- 02:10 – Bo retained the domain as an investment for the company
- 02:51 – Bo shares how he made the deal of using the domain for free
- 03:10 – Domains are assets but the value won't grow that much
- 03:28 – Bo gave the domain owner less than 10% of the company
- 03;40 – Privacy has a browser extension and mobile app
- 03:44 – It allows you to create unique card number for every purchase you make online with just one click
- 04:00 – You can use any name or details and set your own credit limit
- 04:20 – It's actually a debit card which can be linked to your checking account
- 04:30 – Currently, there's nothing that is completely unhackable
- 04:42 – Privacy takes the best practices and security measures to ensure the client's security
- 05:25 – The cards from Privacy can't be use anywhere else
- 05:38 – Privacy makes money from interchange
- 05:43 – Every time that there's a transaction using a card, the merchant pays Visa, Visa shares the fee with the bank, and the bank shares the fee with Privacy
- 05:56 – If Nathan uses $100 on an Amazon checkout, Privacy will get around 1%
- 06:51 – Privacy has raised $3.5M
- 06:59 – Transaction volume is how Privacy's revenue grow
- 07:10 – Privacy is more focused on how much people have saved from using them
- 08:06 – Privacy was founded in 2014 and was launched as a beta first, a year ago
- 08:30 – Privacy currently has 150K users
- 09:15 – Privacy is growing in double digits, month over month in transaction volume
- 09:23 – Privacy has already broken a million transactions in just a month
- 09:50 – Team size is 10 based in New York City with some in Florida and Oregon
- 10:16 – Bo is still thinking of Privacy having a premium feature
- 10:31 – Average MRR is around $10K
- 10:57 – Bo was inside of Hatch Labs
- 11:20 – Bo thinks that Tinder work because it was the right product at the right time
- 11:55 – Hatch Labs was a venture studio and had 10-20 projects at a time
- 12:41 – What IC puts in every project in Hatch Labs depends on the project
- 13:06 – Bo left Hatch Labs a year and a half ago
- 15:14 – The Famous Five
3 Key Points:
- While online shopping is becoming more of a necessity, online security can still be questionable so having an alternative to paying with a credit card is something people are looking for.
- Focus on your company's mission and the rest will follow.
- Don't overestimate or underestimate things – see through them.
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
- GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
- Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
- Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
- 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
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives