Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures

How we organize our companies used to be a straightforward affair, pick a place, like a humble garage, have everyone show up at that place and build your widget, and grow from there. Even before the rise of the pandemic, that equation was being disrupted, and the question of do we even need a physical place to build together has been questioned. Our guest today, Eyal Lasker, Co-Founder and CEO of Flexspace is helping companies navigate questions around growth, community, and space. Flexspace is a platform that allows companies to discover, book, and manage on-demand workspaces with no commitment or upfront cost. About Eyal Lasker:Eyal Lasker has been a founder and operator for the last decade. He Co-Founded a video compression startup in 2012 before moving to Klarna in 2013 as Lead Product Manager and founding member of Klarna's consumer domain. He then had jobs at Otto and Uber, before landing at WeWork. He has a BS from Tel Aviv University and his masters from Reichman University.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:37 Eyal’s journey to founding Flexspace04:56 How the IDF helped shape his career06:49 Making the jump to becoming a founder08:09 What lessons he took from his first startup09:16 Why team building is so important to startups10:05 Lessons from Klarna, Uber, Otto, and WeWork13:05 What working at hedge funds taught him to be successful at big-league startups15:02 What made Eyal decide to pull the trigger to start Flexspace17:26 How Flexspace actually works18:51 Why Flexspace is different than other predecessors and competitors20:14 How they coach landlords on how to use their spaces with data23:09 How employers should think about leasing space and offices moving forward26:02 Why other coworking spaces need a platform like Flexspace27:06 How Flexspace is helping solve repurposing retail space28:37 Data Flexspace is collecting32:22 Plans for their recent funding round led by M13, with R-Squared Ventures, Magenta Venture Partners, and othersFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Startups love to tackle big problems in entrenched industries, but when it comes to the biggest problems, like say the Global Climate Crisis, sometimes it can be hard to find a new way to solve the problem. Our guest today, Devon Wright, Founder and CEO of Lumo, a smart irrigation system that helps growers save water, improve crop quality, and reduce costs. We talk to Devon about what Lumo is doing and how other startups can help solve the climate crisis.About Devon Wright:Devon Wright founded Lumo. Our mission is to massively improve fresh water efficiency for humanity. Our focus is on helping growers optimize their irrigation to continue to meet our growing food demand with an increasingly volatile water supply.Prior to this, he co-founded Turnstyle Solutions and grew it to one of the largest local marketing platforms of its kind before being acquired by Yelp in 2017. He helped build and run the Yelp Restaurants division until 2022.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:44 Devon’s background and how he got here05:47 How capitalizing on opportunities has helped his career07:14 Challenges he’s faced as a non-technical founder11:05 The perils of outsourcing versus trying to make it work yourself13:26 How Devon found himself living on a farm17:10 Why the pandemic helped spur his interest in sustainable farming21:02 How Lumo came to be from Devon’s person need for a better solution to irrigation26:08 The prevalence of manual watering in 202227:35 Building the early prototypes32:38 How Lumo actually works33:54 Where Devon found his co-founders38:48 Why speed to market is so important to founding a company40:24 Lumo’s recent fundraising round led by Fallline Capital42:53 The longterm vision of LumoFast Favorites:* 🎙- Podcast: My Climate Journey (MCJ) * 📰- Favourite Newsletter/Blog: Wine Industry Advisor* 📲- Favourite Tech Gadget: Arduino* 📈-  Favourite New Trend: Substack and direct content monetization* 📚- Favourite Book: “Dreamt Land” by Mark Arax and “The Water Paradox” by Ed Barbier* 🤔- Favourite Life Lesson: Follow your heart. Do what you care most about. Your passion is your biggest assetFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Spencer Dent, Co-Founder of Clozd, has a rich background in sales strategy and consulting. He shares key insights on how startups can enhance their sales forecasting and win-loss analysis techniques. Listeners learn about the importance of product market fit and effective customer interviews. Spencer discusses the value of third-party consulting in gathering unbiased buyer insights and emphasizes building resilience in startups. His journey from a call center to founding Clozd reveals essential lessons on grit and emotional intelligence for aspiring entrepreneurs.

With the ascendance of gig work platforms like Uber, Fiverr, and DoorDash, it could be easy to be lulled into thinking that the space is fully matured. But there’s a new wave of gig working platforms that promise to add in Web3 Technology and the ability to accomplish more complex work. Our guest today, Matthew Spoke, is the Founder and CEO of Moves Financial, a fintech platform designed to enable the gig economy in Web3.About Matthew Spoke:Matthew Spoke is the CEO of Moves, the Digital Credit Union of the gig economy. Matt is considered a leader on the cutting edge of future-defining technologies and has spoken at dozens of tech conferences and written for Forbes, FastCompany, Coindesk, Financial Post, and TechCrunch.Matt is a strong advocate for the social benefits of decentralized technologies and created the Open Foundation, a not-for-profit focused on advancing blockchain technologies. He’s served as an advisor to governments on the regulatory implications of new technologies like blockchain on the future world of finance.In his former life, Matt was working as a CPA with Deloitte, when he discovered Bitcoin and became fascinated with the technology.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:44 Matt’s journey into Startups04:44 The attention his early ideas received and how that was embraced07:42 Lessons he learned from his first crypto startup12:38 False competition and bad ideas in a frothy market18:48 How the gig economy has evolved since 2020 and the pandemic23:45 What surprised Matt most about Gig worker economy27:12 How the privacy lockdown on iOS has affected data collection for gig platforms30:29 What Moves does and how it works for Gig workers39:23 How Moves interacts with traditional banks and financial services45:50 Getting gig workers aware of their financial position and helps improve their financial health49:02 The revenue model of Moves50:57 Plans for their recent $5M Seed round led by Omers VenturesFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: All in, Curse of Politics* 📰- Favorite Newsletter /Blog: Lenny Airbnb* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: DJI Mini 2 drone* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Stock ownership by workers* 📚- Favorite Book: Inspired* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: If you’re the smartest person in the room, change roomsFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

FinTech is both an undeniable tech movement, as well as, an ambiguous buzzword that founders can use for caché. So what is it and how can startups truly utilize tools from the FinTech world to give their own companies superpowers. Our guest today, Joe Keeley, is the Co-Founder and CEO of JustiFi, a platform that allows Vertical SaaS companies to add sophisticated FinTech to their service offerings and how that can save companies in processing fees and give customers more flexibility in payments. We also discuss how startups should think about choosing third-party service providers when entering the embedded fintech arena and why it may not be the smartest choice to build your own in-house payments team from scratch. They recently announced a Seed+ round led by our good friends at Crosslink Capital aligned with existing investors Rally Ventures and Emergence Capital.About Joe Keeley:Joe is the CEO and Co-founder of JustiFi Technologies, a venture-backed fintech business providing payments and fintech infrastructure and strategy for vertical SaaS platforms.Prior to JustiFi, Joe founded and grew College Nannies, Sitters & Tutors (CNST), the nation’s largest in-home childcare and tutoring company. He led CNST to over 200 franchises in the USA and United Kingdom (a milestone less than 5% of franchisors achieve) and over 13,000 employees. In 2016, College Nannies, Sitters & Tutors was acquired by Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE: BFAM), the largest corporate-sponsored childcare operator globally.He has been named the prestigious Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of The Year”, the “Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year”, “Top 25 under 25 to Watch” by Business Week Magazine, “20 under 30 Who Will Change the World” by Citizen Culture magazine, one of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s “Young Entrepreneurs” and “40 under 40”, Glass Door’s Top 100 Companies to Work For, Minnesota Business 100 Best Companies to Work For, and Entrepreneur Magazine's top 100 Franchise concepts many years running.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves.The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month.Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them.Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks - Use Referral Code - TankTalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:42 Joe journey to creating CNST04:19 How Joe embraced technology as a solution for childcare and tutoring05:42 Why Joe’s first company was bootstrapped07:51 Why Joe and his co-founders decided to launch JustiFi11:21 Solving the processing fee problems for small business13:06 The history of FinTech and embedded FinTech16:05 How smaller businesses can benefit from embedded FinTech18:53 Why startups benefit from outsourcing FinTech tools21:02 How businesses should choose an embedded FinTech partner23:45 Choosing a generalist vs specialist service partner26:40 Why being the best at what you do is the most important thing as a startup28:32 Why Vertical SaaS is JustiFi’s current target market31:48 What lowering fees has meant to JustiFi’s customers34:12 How bigger is JustiFi’s Total Addressable Market35:58 Plans for JustiFi’s recent fundraiseFast FavoritesPodcastThe BBC MinuteNewsletter/BlogMorning BrewTech GadgetSonosNew TrendBack to officeBookThe Giving TreeLife LessonWork Hard and Be NiceFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

With the recent market pullback, growth-stage startups have to figure out how to best navigate today’s markets. In this episode, we welcome Margaret Wu, Partner and Lead Investor at Georgian Partners, a Canadian fund that invests in high-growth tech companies. Recently they have focused on the growth of applied AI, investing in Vention, a digital manufacturing automation platform in its $95M Series-C round; and in a $150M Series-C round for global HR software platform Oyster.Georgian Partners also publishes The Georgian Impact Podcast, runs the collaborative pre-investment CoLab program, and has developed a robust R&D team that leverages AI-driven solutions for its founders. Margo and I discuss how software can be the lifeblood of a well-run organization; how Georgian is currently managing its existing portfolio investments, and the incredible platform Georgian has built to help companies use data to deliver insights to CEOs and startups. About Margo Wu:Margaret “Margo” Wu is a Lead Investor at Georgian and is involved in due diligence, deal selection, and board governance for startups exploiting Applied AI.Prior to Georgian, she was a Product Manager for mobile marketing at Amazon, co-founded a biotech company, and served as COO at OneSpout, a local e-commerce startup. Margaret began her career in technology consulting at Accenture and holds an MBA from Cornell University, as well as a BSc and BES from the University of Waterloo. A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves.The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month.Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them.Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:37 Margo’s background in technology and startups and her journey into investing04:20 How consulting helped Margo understand the building and scaling of companies06:05 Lessons learned from Product Management at Amazon10:25 Georgian’s investment thesis and mandate13:40 How Georgian found deals at the right valuations over the past year16:49 Thoughts on “Operating during a Downturn” and preparing for a crucible moment19:47 How Georgian is thinking about profitability and how realistic it is for founders to pursue23:01 Georgian’s acquisition strategy given the cheap opportunities in the public market25:04 Advice to founders looking for growth capital but are at risk of a flat/down round26:49 How Founders are responding to the current market conditions28:56 Does Georgian Partners time the markets?30:55 How Georgian manages follow-up investments in later-stage, pre-IPO firms32:00 How Georgian’s platform has tactically supported founders34:23 How the CoLab program works38:13 How the R&D Team can help portfolio and non-portfolio company founders Fast FavoritesPodcastAll-In PodcastBlog/NewletterWait but Why By Tim UrbanTech GadgetNintendo 64New TrendRemote Work/ WFHBookArt of the Start by Guy KawasakiLife LessonKnowing when to pivot and when to persevereFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Being an outsider these days has a lot of advantages. It can allow ideas to crystallize in ways that someone who is too close to an industry may avoid. Today we welcome Nate Pierotti, Principal of New Stack Ventures, an early-stage fund whose mission is to invest in outsiders and founders that don’t come from the same educational pedigrees or locations we typically see in the venture world. New Stack has been encouraging entrepreneurship in new places and innovation in new technologies and recently announced the close of their second fund of $42.6 million. In this episode, we discuss the mass exodus from the Silicon Valley, the effects of the pandemic and the recent market meltdown on VC firms, and the future of technological startups.About Nate Pierotti:With New Stack Ventures, Nate Pierotti has used his deep technical knowledge and invested in startups like insurance platform Covie and life sciences platform BTR. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Monarch, a sports robotics company. He received multiple patents for his work at Monarc, and was part of engineering and product design. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Iowa.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves.The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month.Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them.Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:33 Nate’s background and his journey into startups and technology04:34 Nate’s experience with building his first startup, Monarc07:13 What differentiates non-coastal founders in the VC world08:20 Nate’s transition into venture capital with New Stack Ventures14:24 How entrepreneurs have resisted the pressure to move to the Silicon Valley 17:06 How New Stack Ventures keeps its founders from becoming complacent18:01 Finding and scaling management teams locally20:48 The future of outsider-built technologies and startups25:37 What the mass exodus from the Silicon Valley means for entrepreneurs28:00 Supporting diverse founders outside of the Valley29:10 How New Stack competes with other firms in the Midwest, and firms along the coasts35:41 How New Stack advises its founders and helps them access capital and opportunitiesFast FavoritesPodcastsThe 20 VCBlog/NewletterAbove the Crowd by Bill GurleyTech GadgetAirPodsNew TrendUnit EconomicsBookPredictably Irrational by Dan ArielyLife LessonTreating people fairly and with respectFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

It’s been a year since Boris Wertz was a guest on Tank Talks, and oh what a year it’s been. We’ve seen NFTs and Crypto rise, fall, rise, and crash. And that’s just the last few weeks. We thought it would be fun to listen with new ears to this thought-provoking conservation with someone who has helped build the crypto space into what it is today. Through his position as an early investor in Dapper Labs, creators of CryptoKitties and NBA TopShot, Boris has been an early believer in the power of blockchain and crypto and he’s now setting his sights on climate change investing and the creator economy.Boris’ Background:Boris Wertz is founding partner of Version One and one of the top tech early-stage investors in North America. Born in Germany and based in Vancouver, Boris takes a wide-angle view to find great companies all across North America with a focus on the pre-seed and the seed stage in marketplaces, enterprise SaaS, crypto, healthcare, energy, climate.. He is a board partner with Andreessen Horowitz and is well-respected for his uncanny ability to find the next generation of leaders. Before becoming an investor, Boris built an online marketplace for used and out-of-print books in 1999, selling the business to AbeBooks.com where he became COO and led a team of 140 people doing $250mm in platform revenues. After AbeBooks.com was sold to Amazon, he moved into investing, first as an angel and now with his own fund Version One which launched in 2012.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves.The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month.Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them.Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:27 The growth of DeFi as an industry03:48 How negative associations with the early ICO market has affected DeFi06:01 The opportunity Boris saw in 201709:32 The speed of innovation the crypto space11:14 How big the market for Ethereum can grow12:52 Valuing crypto platforms and protocols14:04 How Uniswap.com works and its power16:10 The lending mechanic in Ethereum18:58 New platforms like nexusmutual.io and opyn.co22:42 How DeFi compares and competes with another Boris portfolio company, Coinbase27:28 Has Boris bought any TopShot packs personally29:39 Selling his Cryptokitties investment to his LPs31:30 The future of cryptoart32:33 What value means with today’s meme-investing34:47 How his team decides on what is worth investing in37:50 Addressing Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger’s crypto critique40:08 Working with LPs as investment thesis evolves43:02 How portfolio company silviaterra.com is working to fight climate change44:34 Investing while remoteFast FavoritesPodcast:Invest Like The BestNewsletter or blog:stratechery.comTech gadget:Google PixelNew trend:The creator economyFavorite book:Albert Banger’s forthcoming bookFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

One of the trickiest problems in the startup world is how to properly compensate your employees. It’s a delicate balance between providing competitive offers, retaining employees, and being wise with your funding. Our guest today is looking to help founders navigate these decisions, Thanh Nguyen, CEO and Co-Founder of OpenComp is building a platform that allows companies to evaluate how their organization's compensation data stacks up against the market and build fair offers, and qualify compensation requests from potential candidates directly against real market data.About Thanh Nguyen:Thanh is a leading expert in his field with more than two decades of experience in compensation and HR strategies. He has worked with thousands of technology companies, including Airbnb, A16z, Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, Figma, LiveNation, Lyft, Uber, and many othersPrior to OpenComp, Thanh was most recently a partner of Connery Consulting, overseeing operations, a team of management and delivery consultants, and business development. Thanh also worked as the first member of the Rewards team at Salesforce.com where he remained for nearly a decade, spanning various domestic and international HR leadership roles.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves.The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month.Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them.Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:50 Thanh’s journey into a career in compensation08:46 Lessons he learned on how to grow a startup from his time at Salesforce12:30 Why Thanh saw the need to start OpenComp14:24 How OpenComp works and where its data comes from18:11 The volume of data OpenComp tracks and how their freemium model works19:22 How OpenComp weaves user data into a broader picture of the market21:44 Mistakes early founders make when building a compensation plan23:30 Why growth rounds can pressure founders to hire the wrong people24:57 Advice to founders that are struggling to compete for talent26:55 How to think about equity when building compensation plans29:48 Pros and cons of salary transparency at OpenComp and in the market in general32:38 How pay transparency can help guide companies that may only be salary-focused34:48 What Thanh advises companies to think about compensation with a hybrid work environment37:40 How OpenComp is helping to fight the great resignation and ensure employee retention39:30 How data from OpenComp is helping companies the importance of DEI42:52 Plans for OpenComp’s recent $20M Series A  led by K5 Global, Time Ventures, 8VC, Mantis VC, and J.P. MorganFast FavoritesPodcastsAudio BooksBlog/NewletterApple News FeedTech GadgetApple ecosystemNew TrendPay transparencyBookBreathLife LessonEmbrace The GrindFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Retail investing, meme stocks, and finding new ways to bring underrepresented and non-traditional demographics into the investor class will be a lasting impact of the last two years. Our guest today, Ali Moiz, Founder and CEO of Stonks.com is at the center of that movement. We talk with him about what led him to create the platform, which allows accelerators and investors to Livestream demo days and founder pitch sessions. We hear the story of how he got the domain, how his history led him to this, and what he plans to do with his recent funding round which he raised obviously on Stonks.com itself.About Ali Moiz:Ali has been a successful founder for over 20 years. Most notably as CEO of Streamlabs, a platform to improve the streaming experience for creators on platforms like Twitch. He Founded Stonks.com in 2021.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the US and many other countries around the world. Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today! In this episode we discuss:03:21 Ali’s journey into startups and company building05:35 The biggest lessons he learned from his experiences with startups07:42 His early experiences with angel investments09:48 What Stonks.com is and how it works16:06 How the pre-seed and seed rounds of Stonks.com came together18:21 How Stonks.com short-circuits the fundraising process for startups21:11 How companies can raise capital on Stonks.com23:09 What Stonks.com addresses that other platforms are not28:16 How Stonks.com sets up for Demo Days38:40 How Stonks.com is infiltrating the traditional market41:08 Managing VC relationships offline42:30 Ali’s advice for acquiring liquidity on the secondary share market50:01 Building companies in and around financial crisesFast Favorites:PodcastThe All-In PodcastNewsletter/Bloga16zTech GadgetWhoopNew TrendDemocratizing access to asset classes that were previously closed (The Robinhood Movement)BookThe Almanack of Naval RavikantThe Cold Start ProblemLife LessonGrit/ PersistenceFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com