Paradigm Shift

EP16: Opportunities in Marketplaces, Future of Work, and Fintech, with Don Stalter, investor at Global Founders Capital and former Head of International at Airbnb & Groupon

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Don Stalter is a Partner at Global Founders Capital (GFC) and has an incredible portfolio of investments including Brex, Deel, CultureAmp, Checkr, FamPay and many more. Before transitioning into an investment role, Don was a co-founder of CityDeal which he sold to Groupon, and subsequently led International at both Groupon and Airbnb.

In this conversation we talk about Don’s learnings from working on two of the most explosive marketplace companies of the last decade (Groupon and Airbnb), and trends/opportunities he’s seeing in Marketplaces, Future of Work, and Fintech.

In today’s episode we discuss:

  1. Early career 
    1. What led you into investment banking and M&A work early in your career?
    2. Having worked on blockbuster deals like Google/YouTube, Google/DoubleClick, Disney/Pixar, what were your biggest learnings from those experiences?
  2. Founding CityDeal and selling to Groupon 
    1. What led you to founding CityDeal and ultimately sell to Groupon?
    2. What was your approach to running international at Groupon?
    3. What did Groupon get right in the early days, and what could they have done better?
  3. International at Airbnb 
    1. What was your approach to international growth at Airbnb?
    2. How did you prioritize what to focus on during hypergrowth?
  4. Marketplace investments 
    1. How do you evaluate marketplace businesses as an investor?
    2. What are your thoughts on B2B marketplaces which seem to be a new trend?
    3. What have been some of your learnings investing in digitization of older industries?
  5. Future of work investments 
    1. What was your original thesis that led to investments like Deel, CultureAmp and Checkr?
    2. In a pod covid world, how do you think about remote tooling opportunity for productivity?
  6. Fintech investments 
    1. What are some trends and thesis you’re most excited about?
    2. What are your observations on crypto and NFTs?
  7. Transition to VC 
    1. What do you think makes a great operator vs a great VC?
    2. Has your operating background helped you as a VC?
  8. Closing thoughts 
    1. What are your superpowers that you like to lean on day to day?
    2. Who are some people that have given you a meaningful break?
    3. What books have had an outsized impact on your life?

Links

  • Follow Don on Twitter
  • Some companies mentioned in the episode: Blueland, Cedar.ai, Checkr, Deel, Brex, Karat


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Paradigm ShiftBy Ashish Kundra and Zane Salim
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