New Wave.

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

***

Dan Bowyer, a partner at SuperSeed VC, a £50M UK fund investing in startups transforming the way the world works, joins the podcast to challenge conventional definitions of impact and climate tech.

In our conversation, we explore:

* The definition of impact and climate-tech

* Doing more with less as a way to save the planet

* How to transform industries through productivity and efficiency

* Why B2B Startups can drive meaningful climate impact

* The role of venture capital in creating scalable, sustainable change

* Aligning economic and environmental goals in startup ecosystems

* AI’s potential to revolutionize climate innovation

***

TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction to Dan Bowyer and SuperSeed VC01:26 Dan's Investment Philosophy and Impact Definition02:46 Exploring Climate Tech and Impact05:45 Efficiency and Productivity in Business12:31 Examples of Impactful Investments26:05 The Role of Venture Capital in Climate Tech30:41 Rapid Fire Questions and Final Thoughts

***

REFERENCED• ThingTrax• Messium• AI Build• Maslow’s hierarchy of needs• Impact Reporting (sfdr 9)• GenCast by DeepMind• PACT.VC

***

GUEST▶️ Dan Bowyer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbowyer

***

If you’re new here, I'm Hugo Rauch, the founder of VCo2 media and an aspiring climate tech VC who shares insights, interviews, and research about venture capital and climate tech. My goal is to help you become a better climate-tech entrepreneur and smarter impact investor.

CONNECT WITH ME ▶️ Newsletter - https://climateventuresvco2.substack.com🔗 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/📧 Email - [email protected]🔴 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@VCo2_HugoRauch

***

🏁 PAST EPISODES YOU’LL LOVECarbon Removal 101 with Lisa Mangertseder (Carbon Removal Partners)Jacqueline Van Den Ende (Carbon Equity)

LEAVE A REVIEW 💜 Apple Podcasts - https://shorturl.at/HIDcg 🟢 Spotify - https://shorturl.at/yDTfR

***

SUPPORT 💻 Logo and brand design - Alexander Villinsky📹 Logo animation and transitions - Timothe Lucas

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

***

Lisa Mangertseder, a venture capital associate at Carbon Removal Partners, joins the podcast to explore the critical role of carbon removal in combating climate change. Carbon Removal Partners has invested in 15+ startups including Climeworks, Carbonfuture, and Heirloom.

In our conversation, we discuss:

* The carbon removal methods: from nature-based to high-tech solutions

* Measuring and verifying carbon removal effectively

* Business models and the evolving role of buyers

* The importance of venture capital in scaling carbon removal technologies

* Challenges of achieving scalability and affordability

* The significance of compliance markets in driving adoption

* The future of carbon removal as a cornerstone for net-zero goals

***

TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction 01:14 Understanding CO2 and Its Impact 04:34 The Rise of the Carbon Market 09:16 Carbon Removal Technologies Explained 18:53 Direct Air Capture: The High-Tech Solution 21:25 Business Models in Carbon Removal 22:16 Understanding Carbon Removal Credits 22:50 Key Players in the Carbon Removal Industry 23:21 Revenue Streams for Carbon Removal Companies 24:44 Buyers of Carbon Credits 26:05 Challenges in Carbon Removal 27:43 The Importance of Permanent Carbon Removal 30:14 Scalability and Affordability 37:27 The Role of Venture Capital43:15 Advice for Entrepreneurs and Investors 45:39 Future Milestones in Carbon Removal 46:51 Conclusion and Summary

***

REFERENCED• Kyoto Protocol (1997)• Paris Agreement (2015)• Technological Readiness Level (TRL)• CDR.fyi• IPCC Standards• Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement• Carbon Removal Resources Database

***

GUEST▶️ Lisa Mangertseder - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mangertseder

***

If you’re new here, I'm Hugo Rauch, the founder of VCo2 media and an aspiring climate tech VC who shares insights, interviews, and research about venture capital and climate tech. My goal is to help you become a better climate-tech entrepreneur and smarter impact investor.

CONNECT WITH ME ▶️ Newsletter - https://climateventuresvco2.substack.com🔗 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/📧 Email - [email protected]🔴 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@VCo2_HugoRauch

***

🏁 PAST EPISODES YOU’LL LOVEJacqueline Van Den Ende (Carbon Equity)

LEAVE A REVIEW 💜 Apple Podcasts - https://shorturl.at/HIDcg 🟢 Spotify - https://shorturl.at/yDTfR

***

SUPPORT 💻 Logo and brand design - Alexander Villinsky📹 Logo animation and transitions - Timothe Lucas

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Welcome to VCo2, a podcast for people interested in building, investing, and supporting impact startups. My goal is to help you become a smarter climate-tech entrepreneur and better impact investor.

***

I'm Hugo Rauch, the founder of VCo2, a media about climate tech and venture capital. I'm an aspiring climate tech VC who shares insights, interviews, and research to help climate tech founders and investors.

***

TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The Climate Crisis: A Tipping Point 00:21 The Role of Venture Capital in Climate Tech 00:33 Meet Hugo Rauch and VCo2 Media 00:48 What to Expect from VCo2 Media 01:16 Join the Journey Towards Sustainability

***

CONNECT WITH ME ▶️ Newsletter - https://climateventuresvco2.substack.com🔗 LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/📧 Email - [email protected]🔴 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@VCo2_HugoRauch

***

🏁 PAST EPISODES https://climateventuresvco2.substack.com/p/mobilizing-millions-of-people-to-c74

💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts https://shorturl.at/HIDcg

🟢 Leave a rating on Spotify https://shorturl.at/yDTfR

***

SUPPORT 💻 Logo and brand design Alexander Villinsky📹 Logo animation and transitions Timothe Lucas

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com

Welcome to this new episode of Explore and thank you for your continuous support. If you want to support the show you can give a 5 stars review ✨ on Spotify/Apple podcast.

This is the final episode of Explore Season 2 - thank you for your support! Together, we've grown the podcast and had the opportunity to speak with incredible guests. I’ll share a dedicated post reflecting on the last six months soon, but don’t worry Season 3 will bring even more learnings, there's plenty more to learn!

This week, I sit down with Ethan Austin, former entrepreneur and founding partner at Outside VC. Ethan spent 7-years building GiveForward, a crowdfunding platform he sold to Gofundme. 2-years ago, he launched Outside VC with the goal of building a more equitable and just financial system through pre-seed investments ($100K-$250K first checks). In our conversation, Ethan talked about:

* Founding a crowdfunding platform

* Navigating early days as a non-technical founder

* Securing investment by creating FOMO

* Loosing everything after Facebook turned off traffic

* Lessons learned from being part of Techstars

* Tactical strategies for getting into accelerators

* The importance of transparency and relationships with founders

* Outside VC's investment philosophy

* Understanding the economics of venture capital.

Listen now on 🟢Spotify or 🟣Apple Podcast.

Where to find Ethan:

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fintech-investor/

🔗 Outside VC: https://outside-vc.com/

Where to find me:

🔗 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/

🔗 Newsletter: https://explorepodcast.substack.com/

Timestamps: 

00:00 Meet Ethan Austin: From Founder to VC

01:25 The Birth of a Fundraising Platform

02:35 Challenges and Early Struggles

03:28 Pivoting to Medical Crowdfunding

04:45 Lessons in Startup Focus and Adaptation

06:09 Emotional Challenges of Pivoting

07:49 Building the First Product Without Technical Skills

09:07 The Motivation Behind Starting the Company

12:48 Early Traction and Accelerator Experience

16:34 Moments of Validation and Growth

21:10 Fundraising Journey and Strategies

27:28 The Importance of Personalization in Crowdfunding

28:20 Challenges and Strategies in Crowdfunding

29:47 The Acquisition by YouCaring and Its Impact

31:29 Joining Techstars: A Life-Changing Experience

36:12 Investing in Outsiders: A Unique Venture Capital Approach

41:31 The Investment Process and Building Trust with Founders

49:11 Understanding Venture Capital Economics

51:41 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com

Welcome to this new episode of Explore and thank you for your continuous support. If you want to support the show you can give a 5 stars review ✨ on Spotify/Apple podcast.

This week, I sit down with Vanessa Larco, a former product manager that became a VC at NEA. Vanessa has spent 9+ years supporting companies like Microsoft and Twilio. She is also the co-founder of FunLoop, a company that she sold after a year. For the last 7-years she has been doing investments in Series A and B in North America. In our conversation, Vanessa talked about:

* Growing up with a mom entrepreneur

* How she discovered the product role at Microsoft

* The creation of a gaming startup for children and her path to acquisition

* The challenges of transitioning into VC and learning the ropes

* How personal experiences can inform investment decisions

* The role of VCs in supporting startups during challenging times

* The importance of founder quality in startup success

* The way she thinks about assessing product-market fit

* How she supports founders through tough times as a VC

* Practical advice for founders currently seeking investments

* Why founders should do due diligence on VCs

* Red flags that she looks for in startups

* How to analyze a potential market

Listen now on 🟢Spotify or 🟣Apple Podcast.

Where to find Vanessa:

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessalarco/

Where to find me:

🔗 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/

🔗 Newsletter: https://explorepodcast.substack.com/

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introducing Vanessa Larco, partner at NEA

01:47 Vanessa's Early Life and Entrepreneurial Influence

03:20 Journey into Product Management at Microsoft

05:58 Founding an Educational Gaming Startup

08:40 Challenges and Acquisition of the Startup

11:43 Role of a Product Manager in Startups

16:48 Transition to Venture Capital

27:11 The Empty Office Mystery

27:35 Finding Purpose in a New Role

28:47 Shadowing Senior Partners

30:47 First Investment Journey

31:12 Investing in Greenlight

35:14 Personal Conviction in Investments

37:33 Market Analysis and Diligence

39:03 Supporting Founders Through Tough Times

41:18 Advice for Founders and Investors

45:06 Rapid Fire Questions

50:38 Conclusion and Contact Information

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com

Welcome to this new episode of Explore and thank you for your continuous support. If you want to support the show you can give a 5 stars review ✨ on Spotify/Apple podcast.

This week, I sit down with Ben Lang, one of the first employees at Notion, the founder of next play and an active angel investor. In our conversation, Ben talked about:

* Founding a mapping software with his father

* Creating the Hummus Day as a side project

* Discovering Notion on Product Hunt and launching notion-pages.com

* Joining Notion after emailing Ivan Zhao and flying to SF to meet the team

* Developing the template gallery and the ambassador program

* Notion's unique startup culture and traditions that made it great

* Transitioning to Angel Investing and starting as an apprentice

* His investment thesis, sourcing mechanism, and support to founders

Listen now on 🟢Spotify or 🟣Apple Podcast.

3 learnings from this episode:

🌱 Look for organic trends and support them

As Ben described, many of Notion's community initiatives started by observing what was already happening organically among users. Before taking action, the team at Notion paid close attention to how their users were interacting with the product and with each other. What happens next is a great playbook in growing communities.

Once Notion identified these organic trends, they didn't try to replace them – they supported them. As Ben put it:

"We would see these trends and things happening inside the community and just try to support them and put a framework around it to help drive more."

With organic activities flourishing, Notion's next step was to provide structure and support. They created programs that formalized existing activities like:

* Ambassador Program

* Influencer Marketing

* Campus Program

* Certifications

Today Notion has 35M users.

🚀Ship things quickly

In Ben's words:

"I always optimize for the quickest, most efficient way to get something done.”

But why does it matter?

"Anytime something takes longer than my attention span would hold, I wouldn't end up shipping it.”

It reduces the risk of not shipping at all and it allows for faster feedback and iteration loops with your users. As Ben puts it

"Don't get stuck in the middle, you got to get to the end."

🤝Early-stage investments are bets on people

Ben loves investing very early. For him, traction doesn’t matter as much. What he looks for are “killers”. In his own words:

“I don't think there's any recipe. To me, it fits when I meet someone and I'm like, wow, this person is a killer. I just feel like can sell me on anything, they clearly have the patience to work on something for the next 10 years, they are working hard. When I meet someone like this, I’m like: I want to give them money. I want to be involved!”

Where to find Ben:

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmlang/

🔗 next play: https://nextplayso.substack.com/

🔗 Substack: Ben Lang

Where to find me:

🔗 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/

🔗 Newsletter: https://explorepodcast.substack.com/

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction

02:28 Early Career and Side Projects

02:55 The Hummus Day Story

05:37 Founding MapMe with Family

09:47 Joining Notion: From User to Employee

18:59 Building Community at Notion

26:14 Transition to Angel Investing

36:49 Advice for Founders and Investors

39:08 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com

Welcome to this new episode of Explore and thank you for your continuous support, I wanted to let you know that the best way to send me some love is to give a 5 stars review ✨ on Spotify/Apple podcast.

This week, I sit down with Edrizio de la Cruz the co-founder of Arcus that he sold to Mastercard, a former visiting partner at Y-Combinator and CEO of the Founder School. Tune in to learn about the highs and lows of a startup and get valuable advice.

In our conversation, he shares:

* How he went from being an airplane mechanic to an investment banker

* The creation of Arcus to tackle the remittance market through gift cards

* Being rejected from all accelerators, except Y-Combinator

* Pivoting and focusing on LATAM bills payments through API integration

* How to maintain team’s motivation during challenging periods

* How they got acquired by Mastercard in a prolonged negotiation process

* Becoming a visiting partner at Y-Combinator and coaching founders

* How he supports entrepreneurship for underrepresented tech professionals

* Going to the Whitehouse to talk about venture capital and startups

Listen now on 🟢Spotify or 🟣Apple Podcast.

Some key takeaways:

Startups are hard and persistence is key

Throughout our discussion Edrizio emphasized on persistence as a key factor in entrepreneurial success. Of course, he his an underdog founder, someone that defied the odds, which probably made it even harder. But when I asked:

Hugo: “What are you the most proud of?”

Edrizio: “I feel like I could have quit a lot of times. I think a normal person would have quit and I chose to stay sometimes in my own detriment, sometimes when nobody wanted me to in the company."

Or when we talked about Y-Combinator and what makes it special he said:

Edrizio about YC: “And all you're doing is listening to these success stories that are really horror stories.”

We all hear about how hard it is. But once you’re there, it’s probably different.

Pivoting is necessary

In his own words:

Edrizio about pivoting: “It’s not about whether or not, it’s about when?”

From our discussion, I understood that being able to recognize when a pivot is needed and execute it is an important skill of a founder/CEO. Edrizio mentioned many times that he should have let go the original product earlier.

While pivoting is incredibly hard, especially if you’re short on cash, it’s not surprising that you don’t always get it right on the first shot. But getting the right timing is more an art than a science.

Focus on a niche

Focus on one market/product initially rather than spreading too thin. Edrizio told me all about how trying to tackle multiple markets simultaneously was a mistake. If you look at examples of great companies, they all leveraged the power of a niche. It's better to win in one market before expanding. It leads to much greater success. Don’t try to expand too quickly. In his own words:

“The error that I made was to keep both the U.S. and Latam on at the same time.”

"It doesn't matter if you're in a small market. I think if you can get big in that market and then expand, it's better than if you try to get of medium size in multiple markets at the same time, because it rarely translates from one to another."

From “chief doer” to “chief delegator”

As a startup scales, the CEO role shifts from "chief doer" to "chief delegator". Your role becomes more focused on bringing talented people who could potentially take your job than to execute. Scaling a company requires bringing on individuals who can take on leadership roles and delegate tasks.

“There's like two faces to a CEO. There's like chief doer and chief delegator."

"Under 50 employees, you are doing a lot. You're doing sales, product management, marketing, you're kind of leading the charge on everything."

"Once you get past 50, you have to be very cognizant of being able to bring on talents and people that are so good that they could take your job from you."

Where to find Edrizio:

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edrizio-de-la-cruz/

🔗 The founder school: https://www.linkedin.com/school/thefounderschool/

Where to find me:

🔗 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/

🔗 Newsletter: https://explorepodcast.substack.com/

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

02:41 Edrizio’s Early Life and Journey to New York

04:38 Challenges and Determination in Education

07:20 Breaking into Investment Banking

10:53 Founding Arcus and Early Struggles

14:57 Getting into Y Combinator

24:55 Facing Leadership Challenges

25:26 Navigating Legal Troubles

28:22 Pivoting the Business Model

30:16 Scaling and Learning from Mistakes

35:52 Acquisition by Mastercard

41:20 Role at Y Combinator

46:43 Founders School Initiative

50:36 Final Thoughts and Reflections

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com

Welcome to this new episode of Explore and thank you for your continuous support, I wanted to let you know that the best way to send me some love is to give a 5 stars review ✨ on Spotify/Apple podcast.

Thank you OpenVC for keeping this content free for our listeners. OpenVC is a fundraising platform used by 10,000 founders and 5,000 investors. You can use the code: "EXPLORE” to upgrade to OpenVC Premium and get a 20% discount. 📈🔥

This week, I sit down with Sehreen Noor Ali the co-founder of Sleuth, a pediatric health platform that answers the question "is this normal?" that parents ask all the time. Sehreen started her career shipping tech products for the government and soon after moved to various startups until founding Sleuth in September 2019.

In our conversation, she shares:

* The creation of EdTechWomen, a community of 2,500 women

* How she met her co-founder at Antler

* Her personal motivation behind Sleuth

* Meeting with Gary Vee and securing an investment

* Pitching to president Joe Biden

* The challenges of developing a health tech app

* The impact of COVID on her startup

* The fundraising hurdles she faced

* The pivot to telehealth that led to closing the company

Listen now on 🟢Spotify or 🟣Apple Podcast.

Some key takeaways:

* Personal stories can be powerful in pitching a startup. Sehreen’s product addressed a problem she faced as a mother struggling to find reliable health information for her child. She used this argument as part of her pitch to investor. While some investors view her project as "cute" rather than as a serious business opportunity. Others found it convincing and could relate. Overtime, she found the right balance between personal story and business fundamentals that made a strong case for her startup. She also learned that making the pitch personal works better with people she knew for a long time. On a first cold call with a potential investors, it didn’t yield the expected results.

* The perception that children's health should be a nonprofit highlighted a market gap. Sehreen’s friends asked her if her company should be a non-profit. And she saw this as an indication that the market had not adequately addressed these needs. She saw it as whitespace for technology in this sector. My take on this is that people couldn’t think about any competitor in the space. However, people spend thousands of dollars in their health and insurance each year. Hence, the opportunity was there. This can be applied more broadly: areas traditionally seen as nonprofit territories may actually represent untapped opportunities for innovative, socially responsible ventures.

* Running out of cash is real but it doesn’t always show up in the way you think. Sehreen was doing well - she secured $1.1M seed funding from leading VCs, including Gary Vaynerchuk, she had 5k monthly downloads, 70% download-to-install rates and 40%+ share rate. However, she saw the next steps for her business as a telehealth company, she couldn’t stop the progression there, it wouldn’t have worked, especially for a VC-backed startup. However, the next step meant pivoting to a more capital-intensive business model, in her case, to a telehealth company. This required huge amount of funding, but markets are evolving, and her next round would have been almost impossible in this new environment. Couple of thing I learned from this:

* Carefully considering the capital requirements of potential pivots.

* Maintain communication with investors about the company's needs.

* Have contingency plans for various funding scenarios.

* Startups fail, this is normal. Sehreen’s story also highlights that sometimes, despite best efforts and initial traction, the responsible decision might be to wind down the company if the funding environment doesn't support the necessary next steps. 90% of startup fail. But closing a startup doesn’t mean that you failed. Look at all the success she had, this is a life changing experience, with tremendous learnings. One of the best qualities of an entrepreneur is to be able to take the right decisions even if it hurts. Plus, she is already bouncing back up. Sehreen, if you are reading this, thank you for your transparency and honesty. We need more entrepreneurs like you.

Where to find Sehreen Noor Ali:

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sehreennoorali/

Where to find me:

🔗 LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugorauch/

🔗 Newsletter: https://explorepodcast.substack.com/

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:00 Creating the EdTechWomen Community

07:14 Addressing the Need for Technology in Pediatric Health

14:35 Challenges and Opportunities in Building a Health Startup for Kids

23:10 Redefining Children's Health: From Nonprofit to For-Profit

26:41 Pivoting During COVID-19: Collecting Data through Gamification

30:47 Securing Famous Investors

44:02 The Difficult Decision to Close

50:54 Future Plans: B2B Consulting

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com

Welcome to this new episode of Explore! 😎

Thank you for your continuous support, I wanted to let you know that the best way to send me some love is to give a 5 stars review ✨ on Spotify/Apple podcast.

Thank you OpenVC for keeping this content free for our listeners. OpenVC is a fundraising platform used by 10,000 founders and 5,000 investors. You can use the code: "EXPLORE” to upgrade to OpenVC Premium and get a 20% discount. 📈🔥

This is part 2/2 of this podcast with Sam Wen, a partner at Green Visor Capital, founder of Volley Travel and co-founder of Square. In episode 1, we went through the early days of building Square, and all the reasons behind Square's success.

In this episode, Sam shares the story behind Volley Travel, we talked about the challenges of pivoting as a VC-backed startup, how they secured an acquisition, and the value of having a strong engineering-led team. Sam also shares his vision of Venture Capital and offers valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors, emphasizing the significance of operator experience and scalability in startups.

Have a great episode! 

Listen on 🟢Spotify or on 🟣Apple Podcast.

Learn more about Explore: ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠. 

Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠Sam, and Green Visor.

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction

00:44 Recap of Episode One

01:31 The Journey to Volley Travel

02:19 Pivoting the Business Model

04:14 Challenges and Lessons Learned

07:03 The Acquisition Process

17:53 Transition to Venture Capital

25:27 Empathy in Investing: A Double-Edged Sword

27:07 Identifying Green and Red Flags in Investments

27:39 The Importance of Technology in Early-Stage Companies

31:25 The Role of Charisma in Founders

34:42 Navigating the VC Landscape: Tips and Insights

40:07 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs and Investors

44:39 Inspiring Stories and Final Thoughts

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com

Welcome to this new episode of Explore! 😎

Thank you for your continuous support, I wanted to let you know that the best way to send me some love is to give a 5 stars review ✨ on Spotify/Apple podcast.

Thank you OpenVC for keeping this content free for our listeners. OpenVC is a fundraising platform used by 10,000 founders and 5,000 investors. You can use the code: "EXPLORE” to upgrade to OpenVC Premium and get a 20% discount. 📈🔥

In this episode I sit down with Sam Wen, a partner at Green Visor Capital and co-founder of Square (a $38B company).

You’re probably using Square’s product on a daily basis without knowing it. Square is used by 56 million users that pays with their credit card at small merchants and Starbucks shops. It is this small device that once used the iPhone headphone jack to read credit card and that became this fintech with all sort of payment devices. Look no further than a small grey Square on the payment device next time you go to a shop. This is Square.

Square was co-founded in part by Jack Dorsey (the founder of Twitter), Jim McKelvey, and Sam Wen (our guest today on the show).

In this episode Sam delve into the early days of building Square. Sam shares the inspiration behind creating a simple credit card reader using a smartphone headphone jack and discusses the challenges and triumphs of the startup journey. We talked about the influence of co-founders Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, and the meticulous attention to product quality that has defined Square's success. We discussed competing against Amazon and being copied by PayPal, alongside their legal challenges and fast growth. This episode offers a rich narrative on innovation, persistence, and building a game-changing fintech company.🚀

Founders - this is the story behind the most successful fintech! 📈

Have a great episode! 

Listen on 🟢Spotify or on 🟣Apple Podcast.

Learn more about Explore: ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠. 

Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠Sam, and Green Visor.

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Background

01:20 Early Career and University Days

02:45 First Job at Boeing

05:20 Transition to Square

09:31 Founding Square and Early Challenges

14:40 Square's Product Development

28:48 Fundraising and Market Strategy

39:39 Competing in the Payment Industry

41:53 Driven by Design: The Early Days of Square

42:19 Competing with Giants: Amazon and PayPal

43:03 The Simplicity of Square's Hardware

45:03 Square's Legal Challenges and Industry Impact

46:27 The Philosophy Behind Square's Product Development

54:15 Square's Partnership with Starbucks

55:48 The Intensity of Working at Square

58:21 Reflecting on the Square Journey

01:01:44 Closing

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climateventuresvco2.substack.com