In #22, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) talk about Rory and Kieran O'Reily, the sibling duo behind several massive internet projects and now co-founders of a new fintech backed by American Express. The brothers dropped out of Harvard and became Thiel Fellows to pursue the mania around GIFs by building a GIF creator website called Gifs.com. Despite being used by huge companies like Netflix, the brothers struggled to monetize it, and pivoted into crypto. Their Ethereum-based coin project was one of the most successful crypto communities until its value plummeted 99.9% in 2018, wiping out $80M in value. Now the brothers are focused on problems in traditional finance, primarily the pain of updating card information across disparate websites. Their new startup Knot API has raised $13M from investors like American Express and Plaid to help people seamlessly update payment information.

0:00 Intro

2:55 Gifs.com Story & Breakdown

08:52 Success and Failure in Crypto

16:32 New Fintech Startup: Knot API

Check out their company: https://knotapi.com/

Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod

Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod

Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand.

Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_

Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices