Haystack

JULY 20, 2018

When I began investing a little over five years ago, it felt like the conventional wisdom was that one had to invest in the Bay Area to harvest venture-like returns. So, about two years ago, as a Bay Area resident, living right off Sand Hill Road, started intentionally investing outside the Bay Area.

investing 116

investing investment venture capital peer-to-peer 116

Y Combinator

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Monzo’s culture of customer obsession allowed it to use the crisis to thoughtfully build a beloved consumer and SMB product that has changed personal finance in the UK. When Monzo launched in 2015, the big six banks in the UK had more than 85% market share. Outperforming incumbents with modern experience and digital infrastructure.

peer-to-peer 101

peer-to-peer incumbents financing finance 101

Haystack

MAY 4, 2019

As an investor in startups, there is considerable conventional wisdom around the idea of investing only in the Bay Area. For me, as a seed investor, I started to feel this struggle back in 2015. Until then, the overwhelming majority of Haystack investments were in the Bay Area. “Get a plane!

incumbents 87

incumbents culture transportation investing 87

TechCrunch

JANUARY 15, 2023

On Friday, January 13, investment giant BlackRock announced it was acquiring a minority stake in SMB 401(k) provider startup Human Interest. For one, as one source told me, BlackRock’s investment is a show of faith in the SMB 401(k) market — one where the firm hasn’t historically played. Consolidation everywhere.

incumbents 117

incumbents energy board investing 117

Haystack

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

As a little tradition on this blog, I’ve singled out companies starting in 2013 with Stripe ; there was Snap back in 2014; Slack in 2015; took a break in 2016, as I wasn’t inspired to select one then; and last year, 2017, was Coinbase. 5/ The Enduring Allure Of Platform Potential: Revenue is important.

incumbents 127

incumbents accelerator venture capital financing 127

Y Combinator

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Monzo’s culture of customer obsession allowed it to use the crisis to thoughtfully build a beloved consumer and SMB product that has changed personal finance in the UK. When Monzo launched in 2015, the big six banks in the UK had more than 85% market share. This did not happen by magic.

peer-to-peer 40

peer-to-peer incumbents financing finance 40

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 13, 2019

Using the proliferation of newly GPS-enabled mobile devices to enable taxi hailing and beat out stagnant incumbent providers was always going to be a big win for consumers. There’s no reason why a culture needs to fall apart at the seams in a hypergrowth startup.

culture 290

culture incumbents enablement sustainability 290