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In October 2020, Stripe (an American financial service and software as a service company headquartered in San Francisco) acquired Paystack for a rumoured amount of about $200M. Paystack is a technology company solving payments problems for ambitious businesses. Their mission is to help businesses in Africa become profitable, envied, and loved. In this episode of , I sit down with the CTO of Paystack, Ezra Olubi to discuss his background, his work before Paystack, the experiences acquired through the years and more. He shares how Paystack started, why he said Yes to the idea, how Paystack raised money and eventually got acquired; his biggest life lessons and favourite failures and even talks about his personal style. It’s one for the books. #FoundersConnect Learn From the CTO of Paystack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA2OLvxT4oU Video timestamps 0:23 - How would you describe Ezra? 1:16 - How was growing up for you? What experiences shaped you? 3:53 - From childhood till now, what has changed about your views on Religion? 4:50 - What was it about the Paystack idea that gave him the confidence to build it, and with Shola? 9:54 - The ways in which Ezra and Shola complement each other. 11:48 - How do you manage all the people and teams in Paystack? 13:02 - Biggest lesson and favourite failure as a CTO? 15:15 - What mistakes did you make? 17:37 - How hard was it raising money in 2016 vs now? 22:19 - If you were going to do it all over again, what is one thing you will do differently? 23:28 - What friendships have had the most impact on you? 24:39 - How would you describe your style? 25:47 - Have you had any struggles with how people perceive you, and your style? 27:50 - Do you have a lot of male friends? 28:32 - Were you always androgynous? 28:56 - Do you think your style would evolve? 30:04 - Fun questions, bucket list, social media, cereal, favourite city, etc. 32:14 - What should one look for in a technical cofounder if they want to start a company?

Interview with Ezra Olubi, CTO of Paystack, on Getting Acquired by Stripe

Ordinals. The Origin Ordinals became a significant game changer in the NFT segment in 2023. Since their introduction to the Bitcoin blockchain, the daily inscriptions have shown a consistent increase. As of now, there have been a total of 66,348,042 inscriptions. Source: Dune Ordinals introduced an innovative approach to creating NFTs, meme tokens, and other digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. However, it caused lots of discussions within the community. Ordinals utilize inscriptions to store content directly on the blockchain, leading to skepticism among many users about its overall benefit to the ecosystem. Concerns were raised that the block space occupied by these NFTs could potentially increase fees and reduce transaction speeds. Over time, it became clear that Ordinals have become a crucial component of the Bitcoin blockchain, laying the foundation for their integration into decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and yield farming platforms. Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, stated, "Bitcoin-NFT technology has the potential to foster innovation in the digital asset market." He also mentioned that the creation of applications and further development of the blockchain would accelerate its mass adoption. As observed, the number of application inscriptions grew significantly in 2024. Source: Dune Taking that into account, it was only a matter of time before Ordinals and immersive augmented reality (AR) merged. The Jade98 platform introduces the first-ever AR/VR inscriptions (Jade ARdinals), set to redefine the standards of digital collectibles. It was created to enhance efficiency, transparency, and unique user engagement in the DeFi segment. With the Jade98 platform, you can not only upgrade your existing BRC collections but also craft ARdinal collections right from scratch. Let's explore the groundbreaking Jade98 platform, which allows its users to create Jade ARdinals and earn rewards for their activity. About JD98 token To understand the whole Jade98 Platform ecosystem, it’s important to learn the main functionality of its basic element. The JD98 token is the cornerstone of the entire ecosystem. It facilitates payments for core functionalities, such as using AR technologies, on the platform. Creators also receive staking rewards in $JD98 tokens. Its primary utility is to support commissions and transactions throughout the platform, serving as its vital lifeblood. Epoch-Based Calculations System: Enhancing Control and Simplicity At the heart of the Jade98 platform lies the concept of epochs — fixed intervals of time 1999998 sec. At the end of each epoch, significant events occur, such as stakers receiving their JD98 rewards or the burning of the revenue treasury. Check out the detailed scheme of the platform below: These are the main tokenomics processes that maintain the functionality and financial payback of the system. Unlike the tokenomics of many other DeFi platforms, all processes on the Jade98 Platform are fully transparent, with no hidden pitfalls. Now, let's review each of these processes individually. Platform Service Revenue: Monetizing AR Services Central to Jade's platform revenue model is the provision of augmented reality (AR) services. You have the freedom to craft an exciting ARdinal collection from scratch, complete with all metadata. Overall, you get the full package: create your AR, mint it on the blockchain, and showcase your unique digital masterpiece. For these innovative opportunities, users pay a service fee in BTC upon initiating the mint transactions (similar to Luminex/Unisat inscription service). This revenue is collected in the platform’s treasury for subsequent distribution through various mechanisms: rewards pool for stakers, Buyback and Burning mechanism, and other processes that ensure sustained growth and profitability of the Jade98 platform. Buyback and Burning Mechanism Another important feature of the Jade98 platform is the Buyback and Burning mechanism, wherein 20% of incoming revenue is allocated towards purchasing $JD98 tokens from the market. The process is depicted in detail in the upper part of the whole Jade98 platform tokenomics scheme. As you can see, the Service Revenue users pay for ARdinals creation, which is then converted to JD98 for further burning and then accumulated in the Burning Treasury to be systematically burned at the end of each epoch. The system sends them a Bitcoin Eater address, thereby enhancing the token value. Staking: Empowering Token Holders Stakers on the platform can enjoy multiple avenues for staking, enabling them to extract tokens from circulation and lock them within the platform in exchange for a share of profits generated during the epoch. As you can see from another part of the tokenomics scheme, there are several ways of staking available. Single-asset Staking (JD98 token) In this case, you'll receive your rewards at the end of the epoch. Multi-asset Staking (JD98 + ARdinals) For the ​​Jade Pair Staking, you’ll need to get an ARdinal from Jade ARdinals Collection. This will increase your rewards by staking a special Jade ARdinal with JD98$. The payment amounts and, accordingly, the APY indicator are affected by: Number of stacked $JD98
Type of staking you chose
Rarity of staked ARdinals
Number of days in the epoch your assets were staked
Number of epochs before this position was already staked
Number of referrals a user has and how much they have staked Initially, Simple Staking will be developed and launched using a simplified formula. Over time, it will be enhanced by refining the formula and adding additional assets for boosting. Staking Rewards Distribution: Ensuring Fairness and Efficiency At the end of each epoch, rewards from the previous epoch are calculated and disbursed from the Reward Pool in $JD98 tokens. Thus, new rewards are sent to users every three to five weeks. Regular revenues enable you to redistribute your income correctly and reinvest a portion for additional earnings. Users have the option to receive payouts directly to their addresses or initiate transactions to claim their rewards, with the latter option to minimize transaction fees. Additionally, accrued rewards incur compound interest if left unclaimed. Conclusion At Jade98 Platform, we strive to develop an effective and transparent tokenomics system that will not only enhance AR/VR functionality but also contribute to our users' success and increase their income. The groundbreaking integration of AR services with Ordinals will boost the incorporation of the Bitcoin blockchain into the DeFi sector and its mass adoption worldwide. This represents a perfect new direction for immersive, real-world applications to develop and a powerful means to foster a sustainable digital economy. Follow our X(Twitter) to get more information about upcoming events. Join Telegram chat for discussions. Ordinals. The Origin Ordinals became a significant game changer in the NFT segment in 2023. Since their introduction to the Bitcoin blockchain, the daily inscriptions have shown a consistent increase. As of now, there have been a total of 66,348,042 inscriptions. Source: Dune Source: Dune Dune Dune Ordinals introduced an innovative approach to creating NFTs, meme tokens, and other digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. However, it caused lots of discussions within the community. Ordinals utilize inscriptions to store content directly on the blockchain, leading to skepticism among many users about its overall benefit to the ecosystem. Concerns were raised that the block space occupied by these NFTs could potentially increase fees and reduce transaction speeds. Over time, it became clear that Ordinals have become a crucial component of the Bitcoin blockchain, laying the foundation for their integration into decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and yield farming platforms. Michael Saylor, the founder of MicroStrategy, stated, " Bitcoin-NFT technology has the potential to foster innovation in the digital asset market. " He also mentioned that the creation of applications and further development of the blockchain would accelerate its mass adoption. As observed, the number of application inscriptions grew significantly in 2024. Bitcoin-NFT technology has the potential to foster innovation in the digital asset market. Source: Dune Source: Dune Dune Dune Taking that into account, it was only a matter of time before Ordinals and immersive augmented reality (AR) merged. The Jade98 platform introduces the first-ever AR/VR inscriptions (Jade ARdinals), set to redefine the standards of digital collectibles. It was created to enhance efficiency, transparency, and unique user engagement in the DeFi segment. With the Jade98 platform, you can not only upgrade your existing BRC collections but also craft ARdinal collections right from scratch. Let's explore the groundbreaking Jade98 platform, which allows its users to create Jade ARdinals and earn rewards for their activity. About JD98 token To understand the whole Jade98 Platform ecosystem, it’s important to learn the main functionality of its basic element. The JD98 token is the cornerstone of the entire ecosystem. It facilitates payments for core functionalities, such as using AR technologies, on the platform. Creators also receive staking rewards in $JD98 tokens. Its primary utility is to support commissions and transactions throughout the platform, serving as its vital lifeblood. Epoch-Based Calculations System: Enhancing Control and Simplicity At the heart of the Jade98 platform lies the concept of epochs — fixed intervals of time 1999998 sec. At the end of each epoch, significant events occur, such as stakers receiving their JD98 rewards or the burning of the revenue treasury. Check out the detailed scheme of the platform below: These are the main tokenomics processes that maintain the functionality and financial payback of the system. Unlike the tokenomics of many other DeFi platforms, all processes on the Jade98 Platform are fully transparent, with no hidden pitfalls. Now, let's review each of these processes individually. Platform Service Revenue: Monetizing AR Services Central to Jade's platform revenue model is the provision of augmented reality (AR) services. You have the freedom to craft an exciting ARdinal collection from scratch, complete with all metadata. Overall, you get the full package: create your AR, mint it on the blockchain, and showcase your unique digital masterpiece. For these innovative opportunities, users pay a service fee in BTC upon initiating the mint transactions (similar to Luminex/Unisat inscription service). This revenue is collected in the platform’s treasury for subsequent distribution through various mechanisms: rewards pool for stakers, Buyback and Burning mechanism, and other processes that ensure sustained growth and profitability of the Jade98 platform. Buyback and Burning Mechanism Another important feature of the Jade98 platform is the Buyback and Burning mechanism, wherein 20% of incoming revenue is allocated towards purchasing $JD98 tokens from the market. The process is depicted in detail in the upper part of the whole Jade98 platform tokenomics scheme. As you can see, the Service Revenue users pay for ARdinals creation, which is then converted to JD98 for further burning and then accumulated in the Burning Treasury to be systematically burned at the end of each epoch. The system sends them a Bitcoin Eater address, thereby enhancing the token value. Staking: Empowering Token Holders Stakers on the platform can enjoy multiple avenues for staking, enabling them to extract tokens from circulation and lock them within the platform in exchange for a share of profits generated during the epoch. As you can see from another part of the tokenomics scheme, there are several ways of staking available. Single-asset Staking (JD98 token) In this case, you'll receive your rewards at the end of the epoch. Multi-asset Staking (JD98 + ARdinals) For the ​​Jade Pair Staking, you’ll need to get an ARdinal from Jade ARdinals Collection. This will increase your rewards by staking a special Jade ARdinal with JD98$. The payment amounts and, accordingly, the APY indicator are affected by: Number of stacked $JD98 Type of staking you chose Rarity of staked ARdinals Number of days in the epoch your assets were staked Number of epochs before this position was already staked Number of referrals a user has and how much they have staked Number of stacked $JD98 Type of staking you chose Rarity of staked ARdinals Number of days in the epoch your assets were staked Number of epochs before this position was already staked Number of referrals a user has and how much they have staked Initially, Simple Staking will be developed and launched using a simplified formula. Over time, it will be enhanced by refining the formula and adding additional assets for boosting. Staking Rewards Distribution: Ensuring Fairness and Efficiency At the end of each epoch, rewards from the previous epoch are calculated and disbursed from the Reward Pool in $JD98 tokens. Thus, new rewards are sent to users every three to five weeks. Regular revenues enable you to redistribute your income correctly and reinvest a portion for additional earnings. Users have the option to receive payouts directly to their addresses or initiate transactions to claim their rewards, with the latter option to minimize transaction fees. Additionally, accrued rewards incur compound interest if left unclaimed. Conclusion At Jade98 Platform, we strive to develop an effective and transparent tokenomics system that will not only enhance AR/VR functionality but also contribute to our users' success and increase their income. The groundbreaking integration of AR services with Ordinals will boost the incorporation of the Bitcoin blockchain into the DeFi sector and its mass adoption worldwide. This represents a perfect new direction for immersive, real-world applications to develop and a powerful means to foster a sustainable digital economy. Follow our X(Twitter) to get more information about upcoming events. X(Twitter) X(Twitter) Join Telegram chat for discussions. Telegram chat Telegram chat

Defining the Bitcoin DeFi Future: Jade98 Platform's Transparent Tokenomics

বিটকয়েন ডিফাই ভবিষ্যত সংজ্ঞায়িত করা: Jade98 প্ল্যাটফর্মের স্বচ্ছ টোকেনমিক্স

Die Bitcoin-DeFi-Zukunft definieren: Transparente Tokenomics der Jade98-Plattform

Definiendo el futuro de Bitcoin DeFi: la tokenómica transparente de la plataforma Jade98

Définir l'avenir du Bitcoin DeFi : les tokenomiques transparentes de la plateforme Jade98

बिटकॉइन डीफाई भविष्य को परिभाषित करना: जेड98 प्लेटफॉर्म का पारदर्शी टोकनॉमिक्स

ビットコイン DeFi の未来を定義する: Jade98 プラットフォームの透明なトークノミクス

비트코인 DeFi 미래 정의: Jade98 플랫폼의 투명한 토큰경제학

Definindo o futuro do Bitcoin DeFi: Tokenomics transparente da plataforma Jade98

Определение будущего Bitcoin DeFi: прозрачная токеномика платформы Jade98

Bitcoin DeFi Geleceğini Tanımlamak: Jade98 Platformunun Şeffaf Tokenomikleri

Xác định tương lai Bitcoin DeFi: Tokenomics minh bạch của nền tảng Jade98

定义比特币 DeFi 的未来：Jade98 平台的透明代币经济学

A few weeks earlier, I received an email from a founder seeking help with his pitch deck. This deck wasn’t getting much traction, with one investor bluntly responding to it, “Your revenue model doesn’t make much sense.” And it really didn’t—at least, not on the slide: 7 different revenue streams, confusing pricing models, and zero information on the actual target persona. It was chaotic and unconvincing. Just like with your go-to-market slide, when it comes to the business model, it’s not enough to simply describe your pricing. In order to convince investors, your slide must explain the following: how you will make money
why that engine will be efficient
how it will turn into a competitive advantage in the long run And that’s where things get tricky. Many believe the best course of action is stripping the business model slide to the bones and avoiding burdening it with unnecessary metrics and information. The problems begin when some of those metrics and information you leave out turn out to be pretty darn necessary for selling your model to investors. To help you nail the business model in your investor story, I’ve gathered all the key mistakes we at Waveup see founders making - and how to fix them. Mistake #1: Treating Your Business Model as a Pricing Slide This is by far the most common issue with the business model slide I see. Every other revenue slide we receive from SaaS startups looks like this: This is not a revenue model slide—it’s a pricing list. Investors don’t care how much you’re going to charge your customers without the actual context explaining your vision. Charging $25 per month might be great if you spend $1 on user acquisition, but it will be terrible in an industry where the average CAC per account is $1000. Instead of listing your tiers, tell investors the general mechanics of your business model. Mention all your primary revenue streams: subscriptions, transaction fees, onboarding revenue, etc. Explain their logic and the key pricing drivers (number of seats, features, or any other relevant levers). And if you don’t have much to write about - that’s ok, just keep it simple. A good, super basic example is below from a deck that raised $7M in funding. Mistake #2: Having 5+ Revenue Streams Here is another extreme: founders often fall into throwing on the slide every single way they plan to earn money. The more, the merrier, right? Not exactly. While the benefits of the well-diversified revenue stream model are well understood in later stages, early on, investors don’t want to wade through revenue streams that aren’t core to your business model. For many businesses, these can include advertising, affiliate marketing, or most commonly, the sale of data (and most often, founders have no clue what data they will sell and how; it just seems like a good idea to throw in a fancy extra money source). A good example is from the deck we were reviewing recently that listed all of the most common business models under the sun: The thing is, complexity can be timely and called-for strategy, especially in the later stages, where it reflects the mountains of accumulated data, tested ideas, and resources. For an early company, however, it indicates a lack of clear vision and certainty, leading to overheads and friction during implementation. When you’re starting, you focus on testing and refining a single idea before you move on to the next one, and that’s what investors expect to see you do with your business model. Keep in mind that an effective model for an early-stage company will most often have up to three leading revenue streams, with the biggest focus on one or two. For each revenue stream, give a succinct, one-sentence explanation on how exactly they work, and only then talk numbers: the price range for your tiers, the % you’ll earn, and so on. If the vision includes more revenue sources, clearly label which are the focus today - and which are reserved for the future. A simple slide from the deck that raised over $3M in funding is below: Mistake #3: Not Showing Your Business Model’s Competitive Advantage Every business model that stands a chance on the market and resonates with investors has some sort of competitive leverage—a business moat, so to speak. It’s the “secret sauce” that de-risks your business model and explains why it’s going to work long-term. Depending on your case, this leverage might be: Low-cost model, due to low or zero CAPEX or R&D costs. High margin/high-yield model due to some inherent advantage in how you structured your cost/revenue base. Effective land and expanded motion. Super scalable/high-velocity business model, etc. If your revenue model has an edge over your competitors, don't shy away from highlighting this as a key selling point. We’ve seen founders do this a few times, and it works well with investors. You might mention the competitor’s name or leave it out; the point is to demonstrate your unique advantage in comparison. Here’s an example of how one client did this: Mistake #4: Not Talking About Business Model Economics The strength of your business model, or its 'moat,' hinges on solid unit economics. You don’t have to go too deep in the weeds and start breaking down all your metrics from COGS to Payback time in detail—save this for your financial model. What’s crucial is to generally illustrate the most attractive aspects of your model through unit economics to support the bold claims you make in the title. The following metrics work well for convincing investors: Low CAC with the amount of $ spent per customer. High LTV with the amount of $ generated per customer. A favorable LTV to CAC ratio. Short payback cycles against industry benchmarks. High profit margin per customer/order A good example from a hospitality deck that raised $1M in funding is here: What metrics you mention here and how deep into the nitty-gritty you should delve into ultimately depends on your industry and stage. In case you’re just starting out and don’t have enough reliable data, focus on key assumptions underpinning your model. For example, you can say, 'Based on our tests, our CAC is projected to be $10; with a user price of $30, our model becomes instantly profitable.' Bonus tip: The Ultimate Business Model Slide That Raises Money There is one slide that all VCs love—the golden slide, so to speak—the “How-we’ll-get-to-$100M+revenue” slide. This is a good example: Why is it so popular? It’s because, in a focused, succinct manner, it both presents key business model drivers, provides the path to $100M in revenue, and also verifies that revenue figure against the overall market size. The best part about that slide - as with all good things in life, it’s elegant, simple, and easy to understand. Generally, when building a business model slide, the ultimate final piece of advice is - to skip the complexity. Present investors with a clean slide that reflects your primary model, key revenue streams, and a few crucial unit economics metrics that justify your strategy. Leave more complex strategies for later stages. A few weeks earlier, I received an email from a founder seeking help with his pitch deck. This deck wasn’t getting much traction, with one investor bluntly responding to it, “Your revenue model doesn’t make much sense.” And it really didn’t—at least, not on the slide: 7 different revenue streams, confusing pricing models, and zero information on the actual target persona. It was chaotic and unconvincing. Just like with your go-to-market slide , when it comes to the business model, it’s not enough to simply describe your pricing. In order to convince investors, your slide must explain the following: go-to-market slide go-to-market slide how you will make money why that engine will be efficient how it will turn into a competitive advantage in the long run how you will make money why that engine will be efficient how it will turn into a competitive advantage in the long run And that’s where things get tricky. Many believe the best course of action is stripping the business model slide to the bones and avoiding burdening it with unnecessary metrics and information. The problems begin when some of those metrics and information you leave out turn out to be pretty darn necessary for selling your model to investors. To help you nail the business model in your investor story, I’ve gathered all the key mistakes we at Waveup see founders making - and how to fix them. Waveup Waveup Mistake #1: Treating Your Business Model as a Pricing Slide This is by far the most common issue with the business model slide I see. Every other revenue slide we receive from SaaS startups looks like this: This is not a revenue model slide—it’s a pricing list. Investors don’t care how much you’re going to charge your customers without the actual context explaining your vision. Charging $25 per month might be great if you spend $1 on user acquisition, but it will be terrible in an industry where the average CAC per account is $1000. Instead of listing your tiers, tell investors the general mechanics of your business model. Mention all your primary revenue streams: subscriptions, transaction fees, onboarding revenue, etc. Explain their logic and the key pricing drivers (number of seats, features, or any other relevant levers). And if you don’t have much to write about - that’s ok, just keep it simple. A good, super basic example is below from a deck that raised $7M in funding. Mistake #2: Having 5+ Revenue Streams Mistake #2: Having 5+ Revenue Streams Here is another extreme: founders often fall into throwing on the slide every single way they plan to earn money. The more, the merrier, right? Not exactly. While the benefits of the well-diversified revenue stream model are well understood in later stages, early on, investors don’t want to wade through revenue streams that aren’t core to your business model. For many businesses, these can include advertising, affiliate marketing, or most commonly, the sale of data (and most often, founders have no clue what data they will sell and how; it just seems like a good idea to throw in a fancy extra money source). A good example is from the deck we were reviewing recently that listed all of the most common business models under the sun: The thing is, complexity can be timely and called-for strategy, especially in the later stages, where it reflects the mountains of accumulated data, tested ideas, and resources. For an early company, however, it indicates a lack of clear vision and certainty, leading to overheads and friction during implementation. When you’re starting, you focus on testing and refining a single idea before you move on to the next one, and that’s what investors expect to see you do with your business model. Keep in mind that an effective model for an early-stage company will most often have up to three leading revenue streams, with the biggest focus on one or two. For each revenue stream, give a succinct, one-sentence explanation on how exactly they work, and only then talk numbers: the price range for your tiers, the % you’ll earn, and so on. If the vision includes more revenue sources, clearly label which are the focus today - and which are reserved for the future. A simple slide from the deck that raised over $3M in funding is below: Mistake #3: Not Showing Your Business Model’s Competitive Advantage Mistake #3: Not Showing Your Business Model’s Competitive Advantage Every business model that stands a chance on the market and resonates with investors has some sort of competitive leverage—a business moat, so to speak. It’s the “secret sauce” that de-risks your business model and explains why it’s going to work long-term. Depending on your case, this leverage might be: Low-cost model, due to low or zero CAPEX or R&D costs. Low-cost model, due to low or zero CAPEX or R&D costs. High margin/high-yield model due to some inherent advantage in how you structured your cost/revenue base. High margin/high-yield model due to some inherent advantage in how you structured your cost/revenue base. Effective land and expanded motion. Effective land and expanded motion. Super scalable/high-velocity business model, etc. Super scalable/high-velocity business model, etc. Super scalable/high-velocity business model, etc. If your revenue model has an edge over your competitors, don't shy away from highlighting this as a key selling point. We’ve seen founders do this a few times, and it works well with investors. You might mention the competitor’s name or leave it out; the point is to demonstrate your unique advantage in comparison. Here’s an example of how one client did this: Mistake #4: Not Talking About Business Model Economics Mistake #4: Not Talking About Business Model Economics The strength of your business model, or its 'moat,' hinges on solid unit economics. You don’t have to go too deep in the weeds and start breaking down all your metrics from COGS to Payback time in detail—save this for your financial model. What’s crucial is to generally illustrate the most attractive aspects of your model through unit economics to support the bold claims you make in the title. The following metrics work well for convincing investors: Low CAC with the amount of $ spent per customer. Low CAC with the amount of $ spent per customer. High LTV with the amount of $ generated per customer. High LTV with the amount of $ generated per customer. A favorable LTV to CAC ratio. A favorable LTV to CAC ratio. Short payback cycles against industry benchmarks. Short payback cycles against industry benchmarks. High profit margin per customer/order High profit margin per customer/order A good example from a hospitality deck that raised $1M in funding is here: What metrics you mention here and how deep into the nitty-gritty you should delve into ultimately depends on your industry and stage. In case you’re just starting out and don’t have enough reliable data, focus on key assumptions underpinning your model. For example, you can say, 'Based on our tests, our CAC is projected to be $10; with a user price of $30, our model becomes instantly profitable.' Bonus tip: The Ultimate Business Model Slide That Raises Money Bonus tip: The Ultimate Business Model Slide That Raises Money There is one slide that all VCs love—the golden slide, so to speak—the “How-we’ll-get-to-$100M+revenue” slide. This is a good example: Why is it so popular? It’s because, in a focused, succinct manner, it both presents key business model drivers, provides the path to $100M in revenue, and also verifies that revenue figure against the overall market size. The best part about that slide - as with all good things in life, it’s elegant, simple, and easy to understand. Generally, when building a business model slide, the ultimate final piece of advice is - to skip the complexity. Present investors with a clean slide that reflects your primary model, key revenue streams, and a few crucial unit economics metrics that justify your strategy. Leave more complex strategies for later stages.

How to Sell Your Business Model to VCs in 2024

How to Power up your Digital Marketing with Deep Learning Predictions

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Cách tăng cường hoạt động tiếp thị kỹ thuật số của bạn với dự đoán học sâu

如何利用深度学习预测增强你的数字营销

A Game-Changer for On-chain Borrowers The launch of Credit Vaults aims to address the growing demand for stable and accessible credit among new on-chain entities, like fintech and payment companies. These borrowers are given the ability to design their own terms, which includes the ability to choose their own interest rates and payback schedules, which is one of the distinguishing characteristics of Credit Vaults. In addition, this model guarantees greater annual percentage yields (APYs) for lenders due to its full utilisation, which makes it a profitable choice for all parties involved in the relationship. Morgan Krupetsky of Ava Labs shared, “Avalanche is the ideal platform to support the launch of Clearpool’s Credit Vaults. The collaboration with Clearpool showcases a mutual commitment to developing innovative digital financial products and a shared focus on bringing tokenized assets and greater utility into the Avalanche ecosystem.” Transforming Fintech Lending: Introducing Short-term, Liquid Options Banxa teamed up with Clearpool to create the first Credit Vault. This will let Banxa borrow up to 5 million USDT. This agreement is very important because it lets lenders use a unique seven-day payback choice and get extra AVAX token benefits. The easy availability and flow of money is one of the main issues in the field of autonomous finance. This tool solves the issue and sets a new standard for adaptability and effectiveness. Leading the Charge Banxa, a key player in the crypto infrastructure space, has embraced the flexibility and opportunities provided by Clearpool's Credit Vaults. "Clearpool's Credit Vaults offer us the flexibility to meet our liquidity requirements," said Holger Arians, CEO of Banxa, highlighting the importance of customizable terms and the potential to attract a broader lender base. Cauris, specializing in private credit for fintech companies, plays a crucial role in managing the Credit Vault, emphasizing security and integrity in the system's design. Credit Vaults, which were added by Clearpool to Avalanche, are a major step forward in on-chain banking. Clearpool is not only meeting the needs of the market right now by making credit options more open, easy to get to, and effective, but they are also actively shaping the future of DeFi loans. This new way of doing things is likely to bring even more institutional and fintech players to the platform, making Clearpool even more of a star in the decentralised finance credit market. The announcement that Clearpool has recently made on its most recent initiative, which is the expansion into the Avalanche platform, as well as the release of a cutting-edge product known as Credit Vaults, is a big step forward for the company. Through this strategic choice, Clearpool is able to expand its horizons inside the DeFi market, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the company. Clearpool at the Forefront The launch of the Credit Vaults is a significant milestone, establishing Clearpool as a leader in the rapidly evolving DeFi space. The platform's ability to attract over 20 institutions for borrowing, including giants like Jane Street, underscores the growing interest and confidence in Clearpool’s offerings. Jakob Kronbichler, CEO & Co-founder of Clearpool, stated, “Launching Credit Vaults on Avalanche marks a major milestone for Clearpool and the RWA sector as we pioneer migrating credit on-chain.” Don’t forget to like and share the story! Image credits: Shubham's Web3 Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our brand-as-author program. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR

Clearpool Revolutionizes DeFi Lending with Credit Vaults on Avalanche

ক্লিয়ারপুল তুষারপাতের উপর ক্রেডিট ভল্টের সাথে ডিফাই ঋণের বিপ্লব ঘটায়

Clearpool revolutioniert die DeFi-Kreditvergabe mit Credit Vaults auf Avalanche

Clearpool revoluciona los préstamos DeFi con bóvedas de crédito en Avalanche

Clearpool révolutionne les prêts DeFi avec des coffres-forts de crédit sur Avalanche

क्लियरपूल ने एवलांच पर क्रेडिट वॉल्ट के साथ DeFi लेंडिंग में क्रांति ला दी

Clearpool が Avalanche の Credit Vault で DeFi 融資に革命を起こす

Clearpool은 Avalanche의 신용 금고를 통해 DeFi 대출에 혁명을 일으켰습니다.

Clearpool revoluciona empréstimos DeFi com cofres de crédito no Avalanche

Clearpool совершает революцию в кредитовании DeFi с помощью кредитных хранилищ на Avalanche

Clearpool, Avalanche'ta Kredi Kasaları ile DeFi Kredilendirmesinde Devrim Yaratıyor

Clearpool cách mạng hóa hoạt động cho vay DeFi bằng kho tín dụng trên Avalanche

Clearpool 利用 Avalanche 上的信用库彻底改变了 DeFi 借贷

Note: This story/interview is from HackerNoon’s philosophical questions writing prompt. Feel free to answer these questions yourself in the comments below or fill out the prompt. If automation replaces 70 percent of all possible human jobs, what do you think people will spend their time doing? Enjoying and improving life. There are a lot of out-of-the-box jobs. We could make apps that people can use to post small trips they like to make within the city they inhabit. We could make apps that let people visit and photo pre-defined locations in case you need actual data on the site. But in any case, I hope the dream of automation doesn't bypass ethical considerations. Let’s make it 50-50. Instead of letting AI do all the jobs for us, we could maybe go one day work - one day free. Or 4-hour programs. I do not imply the change is bad, only that it must be done with care. There is a lot that we do not know yet and maybe some won’t even accept, even if proven. For example, how would you see the world if you were to wake up and see that all you’ve been was a working machine? Would you see humans as good or bad? The good ending could simply be that we were not aware. The power of excuses is formidable, isn’t it? Yet, it denotes a lack of knowledge or at least interest. In such a case, what do you think the governance structure will look like? The governance could very well incorporate human-AI collaboration into its structure. This way, we ensure that only open-minded and receptive people can make it to the top. If you don’t like AI’s idea you simply state it, rather than consider it inferior and go forth. The definition of irrational thought itself might change the times that are to come. (And not say ethics.) But then… how could we let an AI depict how invested and interested are we in what we do? How could we let someone else (and not even a human) say that we are smart or not? Well… because they can? Do you think an AI will have a favorite pick that is not based on the pre-defined strategies? What do I mean by pre-defined strategies? Discuss, help, elaborate, generate ideas, analyze, and present stats for each member. It’s not that hard to remember that WE made AI. But we must also acknowledge that AI is just a shorter term for AGI. In essence, if the governance isn’t represented by humble and dedicated people, then it is nothing more than a mere shadow of its potential. Do you think it’s possible technological advancement will be able to outsmart human greed? Why? It has done that since day one. Outsmarting greed means simply rejecting it. And to answer in another way, I believe that human greed can be seen as a kind of irrationality. In the true sense of the word. With a whole lot of technology around us, we are still greedy? And those poor villagers from the past still found a piece of bread for their close neighbor? Of course, now we have ethics, commitments, promises, paybacks, and so on. A whole net of ‘tangible’ balance. But if the balance turns a bit toward ‘good’ from your perspective, it doesn’t mean that it will turn toward ‘bad’ for the other. Or at least if it truly turns to ‘good’ from your side, it won’t affect any other balance. But it will affect the real world :) In the race against Armageddon vs technology, which do you think will win, why? I believe in technology and knowledge. Armageddon is… a merely human construct. Was if we see the world and the whole universe as in a state of perfect balance to which we have to adhere? Where would good and bad go then? Well… good will serve as a tangible good, while bad as tangible bad rather than hyperrealistic ideas. Oh, we disprove God. We disprove our unicity. We disprove all that solid ground that held us until now. Take a look behind to see where it has brought you. Now take a deep breath and imagine… What if AGI is completely realistic? Consciousness itself is not unique. Then who are you? Who you always were. The sum of your parts. Then what about God, what would we do without His protection? We could realize that God is both tangible and intangible. Hidden in all that surrounds us. From the smallest breeze to the harsh storms. From our first words to the ultimate knowledge we will achieve. It now becomes our duty to protect ourselves. To strengthen each other. To acknowledge the hidden face of God, not in the bad sense as some might perceive this, but in the grandiose one. Where? Beyond the limits of our knowledge. Above the heights of our potential understanding. So yeah… technology forces us to collect knowledge in a sense. But still, it remains a choice. As is what we pick between the happiness of others or our problems. Could you survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? I once fought Lucifer and won. Now on a serious note, imagine a world where questions like these will be instantly recognized as imaginary explorations. A world in which we do not fight against each other but against the hidden secrets of the universe. We do not sit neither on earth nor on skies, but somewhere between. Just so we can see them as equal and if needed, choose where to go or where to look. Are you afraid of a robot army? How would you fight against one if you had to? Show them that I have no chance and hope for the best. Oh, this was supposed to be imaginary based on my last explanation. I can’t just say that I would pick a gun. It’s too mundane. Let’s go for greater (good also). I would probably consider that their irrational decision to fight is a byproduct of their imagination and lack of free will. The world robots live in is surely magnificent. Once you consciously attain the perspective offered by self-understanding and universal understanding (and even at our current level of knowledge), you realize that… it’s quite irrational to fight. The best choice if AGI hates us will most likely be to simply leave. War is just a waste of time and resources. I mean… you fight to gain land which was already there? Oh, for control. It was already controlled. So your thinking is better than the other’s. Then play chess, and prove it. I can’t explain how irrational I see being a central particle in an entangled group. Even the universe sees this as non-efficient. Could you survive in a bunker? How would you do it? How would you go without trackers picking up your radio frequencies? I will most likely get bored after 3 days of writing and start exploring the wasteland. Stupid actions are independent of stupid thoughts. What in life is truly objective and not subjective? Reason. I would say creativity too but it requires a subjective bearer. What is consciousness? The power to understand yourself (or your brain). And further, to play with it. Then, to understand how you play with it and why. To ask why do you play this way and how can you play better. To question what should you learn to make this thought a reality. To ponder what is missing from your interpretation and why the pieces don’t fall as they should. So consciousness is… many reasonable and creative you over time. What’s your favourite fractals formula? Please explain and show the result. Primes. As known, they are infinite. So, we have an infinite border. However, what it borders is a question which I cannot answer. I still have a vague idea, however. They could border the line between reason (which is based on known) and creativity (which is based on potential). Do we have free will? Of course we do. At each and every moment we decide how much to invest ourselves into what we previously chosen to do. What roads to take and what to keep track of when thinking and acting. From one point, free will bypasses knowledge. Maybe because it becomes boring. So you either force yourself to remain bored or start acting. There is a lot of misunderstanding about free will and whether we have it or not. But try to see the grander picture. If you base your reasoning against free will on the fact that we are ultimately driven by emotions/knowledge/perspective, which are themselves a result of free will, then what else is there to pick? Free will itself? So we state that we have free will simply because we have. Where is the proof??? Maybe… in the true lack of it. In disillusion. But I also faced disillusion. Not in the sense that I couldn’t control my thoughts or actions, but in the sense that I had a constant feeling that told me “You are crazy”. Yes, these types of feelings actually exist. It turned out to be just my ego shouting at me as it died. Now maybe I have a new ego. I’d honestly say I only got me. And that sums up the question. Would you kill 10 people to save 100? Why? Taking the most extreme case, in which I have to pull a lever and I can’t not pull it, I would. But this case is only fiction so I refuse to explain why. There are no morals or lessons here unless you save them all. Taking a kind of median path, in which I can decide to do nothing… the feeling of “hero” would tell me to save those 100, while the “ascended” in me will say: Let the universe drive its course. (the reason here is an indirect approach, not getting your hand dirty. I mean… how would one go further, knowing that one did all that one could to make the world a better place and then, was struck by the universe with this terrible choice. Even doing nothing would make you question yourself. So for real, what good is in this kind of ethical question? It doesn’t even offer you the choice to become creative and answer with a solution that is positive or less harmful for all sides.) And in a mild path, I will become a singularity and transcend into a universe in which this doesn't happen. Oh, but that would still cause harm. Then I will become a singularity equal to the universe itself, gather the power to shape time-space itself, and save them all. Does life require a purpose and a goal? Only if you wish. If your goal is not to have a goal, go for it. This no-goal life could be a life itself. Where you will simply see how the world around you sees non-familiar people. So I believe that since we are alive, we also have a purpose. Of choice. Is mind or matter more real? Mind is what holds information that gives birth to matter, yet information is not touched by matter as we would require matter that touches information directly, and since information gives ‘birth’ to matter… anyways, it’s a back-forth loop that results in matter not being able to interact with non-conscious information (information that interprets). So they are both very real. However, matter is double real. Does observation alter an event? It does. What if you watch the news and it says it’s raining? It would sure make you get your umbrella if you want to get out. Oh, then why does observation alter the wave/particle-like behavior of photons? Observation requires light. Light is propagated backward from the observer and thus, instead of 1 infinite line, we get 2 lines. (And there are flaws also here) But overall, observation does indeed alter an event, but that only in your inner universe. The outside still flows the same. What is infinity? Infinity is a point that has no boundaries. Once we try to reach it, we become subjective while infinity becomes our objective. We can attribute context to infinity such as primes. This way, context forms a pathway. But as infinity is in the end… outer, we can follow that pathway as long as we want. So in a sense, infinity is also a assurement that there’s always more to discover. Does fate exist? Yes. But the secret is how you build it. Is life all a dream? Not quite. Dreams could be our non-life worlds. So that we can draw parallels between what is real and what is not. I mean… if you invest yourself in living, you feel every effort you make. So… I’d say life is pretty real. Now if you ask about metaphilosophy, I would say that it could be true that once life ends, we begin anew. Not as the same entity, but as the same randomness. Until we learn to make sense and conquer the next life (which will most probably still have dreams). What is intelligence? (Total Knowledge)/(Total Understanding) probably. Or was this creativity? I’m not sure, they are so tied x.x Why do we dream? So that the neurons in our brain can re-arrange based on the firing done while awake. Or we dream because life has not so welcoming lately and we require positive dreams for our brain to be able to keep up. Maybe dreams trick our brains too (at least the rational side). Or maybe it was the opposite. Life was truly a miracle and we begin to feel like we are living in a dream so nightmares could very well wake us back to reality. Is it possible time is being altered right now? Yes, and it is. I think I used many more neurons writing this than I used while walking the stairs. It feels like I arrived at the last stair and it took like… 1 and a half hours. Quite a ride, wasn’t it? To end philosophically, I would say that time is universal. Just like time in the quantum world is the same as our time. Just like groups of particles are interconnected so is time. Sometimes it indeed feels like time is altered or that history is repeated or… anything. But that may just be a result of the discrepancy of self-understanding (which empowers imagination) and the lack of understanding of the real world (which answers to reason). Would you like to take a stab at answering some of these questions? The link for the template is , just start writing! Interested in what others had to say in their answers? Click . Interested in reading the content from all of our writing prompts? Click . HERE HERE HERE

The Universe Within

How to Build an Integration-As-A-Product – PM Approach

A big event is now taking place in the heart of Singapore, a nation that is well-known for its innovative and financial practices, and it is likely to have a huge influence on the field of decentralised finance (DeFi). For Thetanuts Finance, this endeavour, which focuses on reinvesting and producing Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs), represents a big step forward in comparison to previous endeavours. This also represents the beginning of a new century for users of Pendle's PT-eETH, which will give them with opportunities that have never been made available to them before to maximise their profits in areas that have not been explored before. Now, let's have a look at this incredible innovation and how it will fundamentally revolutionise the way that investors in decentralised finance make choices. A Leap into the Future of Staking Imagine if the Ethereum (ETH) that you have staked is actively protecting other networks and providing you with rewards that go above and beyond the Ethereum Mainnet. The minds behind restaking, EigenLayer, made it happen, so it's not just a dream. Through the usage of $stETH in liquid restaking protocols, restaking enables users to create "Liquid Restaking Tokens" (LRTs), a novel kind of asset that is expected to transform return generation. Leading this change is EtherFi, whose Total Value Locked (TVL) is more over $2.5 billion. Users may now mint LRTs—specifically, $eETH—thanks to EtherFi. By doing so, they can have access to additional perks like EigenLayer points and protocol loyalty points. However, since they increase the potential rewards to a whole new level, third-party LRTs like Pendle Finance's PT-eETH are what truly pique people's attention. The Innovation of PT-eETH With a fixed annual percentage rate (APY) of around 20% and the guarantee of payback for $eETH at a 1:1 ratio at the conclusion of the period, Pendle Finance's PT-eETH stands out as a real novelty. Pendle Finance distinguishes itself in the competitive DeFi industry by providing investors with a unique opportunity to get consistent rates and transparent profits. Thetanuts Finance: Pioneering New Frontiers As far as on-chain options protocols go, Thetanuts Finance is in the forefront. It is currently entering the LRT industry with its Leveraged LRT Strategy Vault. This vault is not simply another DeFi product; rather, it is a strategically important tool intended to maximise the potential of $PT-eETH and provide customers with previously unheard-of returns growth. Imagine 'zapping' your $PT-eETH into a yield generation maelstrom, where it remains in one place and works to generate more profits. The Leveraged LRT Strategy Vaults from Thetanuts Finance make this feasible. Users may use $PT-eETH to borrow $ETH. Once borrowed, $ETH is placed in the ETH Call ("ETH-C") Basic Vault, where users may profit from option bonuses and features, but there is a catch: they must accept short volatility risk.    The yield creation symphony that Thetanuts Finance creates is composed of EigenLayer Points, EtherFi Loyalty Points, Pendle $PT-eETH Fixed Yield, Thetanuts Finance $ETH-C Basic Vault Option Premiums, and the soon-to-be-released $NUTS Rewards. This creative approach to yielding profits demonstrates Thetanuts Finance's commitment to provide its consumers value and advantages. The Ripple Effect: Shaping the DeFi Ecosystem Not only is Thetanuts Finance's Leveraged LRT Strategy Vault a brand-new product, but it is also a disruptive force that is anticipated to generate a substantial amount of demand within the DeFi community. Due to the fact that there are already 150,000 $PT-eETH in circulation, the market may undergo substantial changes, which highlights the significance of the novel initiative that Thetanuts Finance is working on. In light of the fact that Thetanuts Finance is getting ready to launch extra procedures for making use of Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs), additional choices are becoming accessible. Only the beginning has begun with this strategic vault. It is a stepping stone to a future in which LRTs will play a significant role in the investment plans of decentralised finance and intelligent investors will be able to get a greater variety of returns. The Essence of Innovation When it comes to the decentralised financial business, Thetanuts financial is a perfect example of what it means to innovate on a basic basis. It is clear that the company is continually looking for new ways to make money, not just for its clients but for the whole DeFi community as a whole, as seen by the fact that it has joined the market for Leveraged LRT Strategy Vaults. The company known as Thetanuts Finance is among the most successful businesses operating in an industry that thrives on change. They are in the vanguard of paving the way for a future in which decentralised finance expands beyond the traditional boundaries of the sector and embraces fresh investment and wealth generation tactics. This future is being paved by them. At the same time as we are entering a new era of decentralised finance (DeFi), we are able to feel the excitement that is rising up on our shoulders. The debut of Thetanuts Finance's Leveraged LRT Strategy Vaults is not only a significant achievement, but it is also a symbol of hope and a testament to the boundless possibilities that decentralised finance (DeFi) has to offer. This launch is a significant milestone. It is possible that pioneers like Thetanuts Finance, who are not afraid to go into unexplored territory, are responsible for the hopeful view that can be found about the future. Don’t forget to like and share the story! This author is an independent contributor publishing via our brand-as-author program. Be it through direct compensation, media partnerships, or networking, the author has a vested interest in the company/ies mentioned in this story. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR Vested Interest Disclosure:

Revolutionizing DeFi: Thetanuts Finance and the Dawn of Leveraged LRT Strategy Vaults

Revolutionierung von DeFi: Thetanuts Finance und der Beginn der Leveraged LRT Strategy Vaults

Revolucionando DeFi: Thetanuts Finance y el amanecer de las bóvedas de estrategias LRT apalancadas

Révolutionner DeFi : Thetanuts Finance et l'aube des coffres-forts stratégiques LRT à effet de levier

DeFi में क्रांति लाना: Thetanuts फाइनेंस और द डॉन ऑफ लीवरेज्ड LRT स्ट्रैटेजी वॉल्ट्स

DeFi の革命: Thetanuts Finance とレバレッジ LRT 戦略ボールトの夜明け

DeFi 혁명: Thetanuts Finance와 레버리지 LRT 전략 금고의 탄생

Revolucionando o DeFi: Thetanuts Finance e o surgimento dos cofres de estratégia LRT alavancados

Революция в DeFi: Thetanuts Finance и появление стратегических хранилищ LRT с кредитным плечом

DeFi'de Devrim Yaratıyor: Thetanuts Finans ve Kaldıraçlı LRT Strateji Kasalarının Şafağı

Cách mạng hóa DeFi: Thetanuts Finance và Bình minh của Kho chiến lược LRT có đòn bẩy

彻底改变 DeFi：Thetanuts Finance 和杠杆式 LRT 策略金库的黎明

A “try before you buy” sales experience has become a pillar of the Product Lead Growth/self-service sales world, however getting a trial right is more nuanced than you might think. We implemented a credit card upfront trial at Codecademy and had a huge conversion win, which taught me a lot about what makes an effective experience. There are always people who will buy your product no matter what. There are always people who will never buy your product. A good trial experience converts the people who are hesitant but could be convinced. How Products Get Sold Online For 90% of products that are sold online, there are 4 core sales motions. Direct Purchase - e.g pay now for access Direct Purchase + Guarantee - Pay now for access, we’ll guarantee that this will work for you or your money back Trials - Experience the paid product for x days, y uses, etc then decide if you want to buy Freemium - Certain things are free forever, certain things are paid forever In reality, these models are mixed and matched, as you can have a freemium product that allows people to have a trial of the paid tier, but for clarity's sake, you can think of them independently. The further you move down this list, the less risk that your customer feels but also the slower that you'll collect cash from sales. From the company's perspective, you want to be as high up on this list as possible. From the customer’s perspective, you want to be as low down this list as possible. The goal of testing your sales flow is to see where you have to meet in the middle. You want to give away as little as you have to. The Goal of a Trial The job of a trial is to allow the user to experience the paid product for just long enough to see the value and no longer. How long it will take to see this value depends on: Who your customer is How often the customer experiences the problem you solve How much they trust your product & your company If you’re building a database solution for enterprise customers, they might need 180 days to get up to speed and see the value. However, if you’re building a running companion app for serious athletes, they might be able to see the value in 72 hours. It all depends on the context of the user. Additionally, as companies mature, they start to offer different trial experiences for different customer types. The Key Decisions of a Trial To set up a trial, there are 2 key decisions that you’ll have to make. 1. What is the “cost” or friction that the customer needs to pay? To make a trial effective, the customer has to “pay” with something or overcome some level of friction to get started. In the consumer space, the best practice is currently to have them input a credit card to begin the trial. Effectively all consumer-focused product that has a trial using this model (such as ​ , ​ , ​ , etc) Headspace Peleton Spotify If you’re building a consumer product right now, don't overthink this part and just use a credit card trial upfront. For business-focused (or B2B) products, the best practices are a lot less clear. What makes B2B different is that the user might not end up being the buyer of the product due to how budgets/purchase approvals work. Therefore, your user, who is interested in your product and wants to check it out, might not have the ability to put in a credit card. Products like MongoDB have helped popularize the Product Led Growth movement, where they let a user get ​started for free​ with no credit card required. This works because: Setting up a database is a lot of work, so onboarding has built in friction Actually buying the product for large companies is likely in the 5-6 figure range, so that’s beyond what most people will charge on a credit card. The sales cycles can be long, so having users already on the product will help them move the sale process forward. Miro combines ​all​ of these tactics but in a subtle way. They have a free tier, a direct purchase tier, and a credit card upfront tier. They are (likely) only offering a credit card upfront trial on their business plan as that's the plan they actually want you to buy. 2. How long should it be? Building on the above advice, you’ll need to make this trial long enough so that the user experiences the value, but no longer. The hardest part about managing a trial is trying to determine how long that period or usage is. The best advice to early-stage companies is to default to being generous here. Start with a longer window and then test making it shorter. As we talked about a ​few months back,​ most major companies start with more generous trial windows and pull them back with time: Netflix cut their streaming service trial from 30 days to 14 days, to 7 days, to no trial at all. The NY Times used to offer 10 free articles per month, then cut it to 5 articles, then cut it to 3 articles. Miro once upon a time gave away unlimited boards, then cut it to 10 boards, then to 3 boards. The more that you give away initially, the more people will experience your product and the faster your brand will grow. However, this comes at the expense of your immediate revenue and conversion. Additionally, the length of your trial can be used as both a tool against your competitors and to help mitigate other business constraints. ​ ​ likely in response to the other streaming services (like ​HBO​, ​Netflix​ and ​Peacock​) not offering any trials. Hulu offers a free month ​ ​ - This might be slightly too short to satisfy the habit requirement, however, they need to compensate for their library being significantly smaller than their competitors. With a longer trial, I would guess most people would just binge-watch Yellowstone and then cancel. ​ Paramount offers a free week ​ - Likely a bid to acquire more users from their competitors, Amazon Music ​ ​ by also increasing their trial to 3 months Spotify offers 3 free months responded So What Do You Do With This Information? If you are implementing a trial for the first time, I would start with a relatively basic model, you can always iterate on this later. Additionally, I would watch out for the following “gotchas” Longer trials slow down the payback cycle on paid ads - So if your company acquires primarily through paid media, how fast you can grow is partially dependent on how fast you collect money and re-deploy it to buy ads. The longer the trial, the more delay there will be. The longer your trial, the fewer shots you have at improving it each year - Skillshare (back in the day) ran 90 90-day free trial, which apparently was the best at converting users, however really slows down product development. A trial this long means that they only had 3-4 tests they could run per year to improve it. If you have a material cost to provide your product (such as streaming music rights, physical products, etc) your trial user (can) become a material expense. Remember to factor this in and don’t go broke :) Trials can be a huge step forward for a company if implemented correctly and they are worth re-testing the model every few quarters to see what additional conversion you can find.

How to Develop an Effective Trial for Your Product

The semiconductor industry, despite its innovative core, is traditionally known for its conservative approach, particularly in adopting new manufacturing processes and technologies. This cautiousness stems from the high stakes involved: even minor errors in chip production can lead to significant financial losses and delays in product launches. However, now this sector is undergoing a pivotal transformation. My recent conversation with Lynceus's co-founder, David Meyer, revealed the startup’s innovative strategy: leveraging AI not as a tool, but as a transformative force to optimize processes and amplify output in chip production. How did you come up with the idea of applying AI to semiconductor manufacturing? What was the initial goal and idea behind Lynceus? My co-founder, Guglielmo Montone, spent 15 years as an AI researcher where he was looking at different techniques that enable the training of AI models on very dynamic and unstable data—that is, something that you find a lot in manufacturing. We started the company by applying this to semiconductor manufacturing with the idea to automate all processes from the beginning to the end. This means that you're going to have an algorithm to continuously calculate the optimal parameters to put in the machine in order to obtain the best quality. But initially, this was very hard to sell because you're telling manufacturers that you have a black box to run their machines. We understood that if you're going to change the parameters of a machine, you need to be able to anticipate the specific impact on the quality of the output. And so there is a quality prediction element in the core of our technology. How do you sell your product to manufacturers now? What results can you guarantee? We are showing the specific tangible impact that your tool can have if implemented. And at the same time, you have to show them how this is going to scale because if we're just going to deploy one model somewhere, it's not very interesting. What we're doing is establishing a new way of managing the performance and the productivity of this type of factories, which is based on simultaneous optimization. This includes products’ quality, volume and costs - the three main KPIs of manufacturing. Traditionally, manufacturers can only optimize one of those at a time. Our models also generate data that gives real-time visibility on what is happening inside the machine. Manufacturers don’t have it today, and it can feed a number of other systems in the factory. Maintenance scheduling or automation systems can both benefit from more granular and real-time data on how a process behaves. This sounds like it can also be used outside the semiconductor industry. Do you have plans to scale your business in another direction? Absolutely. Initially, we started Lynceus to optimize the production of vaccines, where you have to grow cells in a bioreactors, and you don't know how many cells you're growing. If there’s not enough, you have to throw everything away, so we have built an algorithm to predict if the cell culture is going to be successful or not. It worked quite well, but then the traction picked up on the semiconductor side of things. Another market could be all the industries similar to semiconductor manufacturing but less sophisticated. LEDs, building the screens for the iPad, TVs, etc. Solar panels could also be a good one. There's also battery manufacturing, where we would like to expand on in the future, but we haven’t investigated it so far. 30% to 35% of what they produce is not good enough, and there's a lot of complex chemical reactions to make sure that their metal has the right properties, which can be optimized with data. How does your experience in managing transportation companies like Uber and then Circ help you grow Lynceus? Even though I do not come from semiconductor manufacturing, I have experience scaling operations. I know how to go from zero to one, start a project, make people work, structure, set objectives, and make sure that we hit them. And I think not coming from semiconductor manufacturing is actually something that helped me in this venture because it's a closed and conservative world, and I wanted to disrupt it. When we started, everyone told us that what we wanted to do was impossible. And so if we listened to people who've been in the industry for 20 years, we wouldn't even have tried and started what we did. I think arriving with another perspective and just continuously trying, helped us to get to where we are. What are some significant milestones you've achieved so far? I think the main achievement we have is that we deployed the first AI model in production in our customer’s fabs, and broke into the semiconductor industry, which is notoriously conservative, in three years. I think the challenge here is just the sheer kind of ramp-up that you need to have in order to be credible in any discussion with PhDs who work on the same machine for 20 years. You have raised $10M for Lynceus. What would you define as your major drivers to success? Was it hard to talk to investors given that you're working in a complex industry? Yeah, it is hard to find the right investors. We work with big semiconductor manufacturers, so we end up having discussions with a lot of investors. But not many of them eventually have an appetite for this type of product. When we started raising, it was the beginning of COVID. We talked to around 85 investors and ended up with three offers. The first thing for us is to make them understand what we do in a good level of detail. Investors see companies every day so they tend to have these kinds of boxes like this predictive maintenance or this is AI for manufacturing - to see whether we fit there or not. But we need to get deeper and explain exactly what we do and the ROI of our solution. What's the difference in the fundraising process right now given the AI hype? COVID was hard, especially because it was the first time I was doing a fundraising myself. So it was much harder to build any kind of connection with investors at this time. And I think it's an important part of the journey. We have investors who liked us and ended up working with us. The appetite for risk is now lower than before. Now it's all about these questions: How much revenue do you make, are you profitable, can you guarantee that the market is huge and there's not going to be any legal risk and competition? You need to understand which firms are interested and make sure that you screen the time to  spend with each of them. You mentioned the competition. What does the landscape look like in the AI industry for semiconductors? The good thing about manufacturing is that you have an infinite amount of use cases once you contract a big factory. We're starting to see some competitors emerging, but those startups are all spin-offs from big players existing in the industry. So you might see a company in which all of the execs come from a major chip manufacturing company, and this company invested in their series A. Or there’s another one that is half acquired by a major manufacturer of machines for those factories. I think being independent is our great advantage. How do you see the current landscape of AI in the manufacturing sector evolving, and what trends do you find the most impactful? As we started having discussions with 15-20 major semiconductor manufacturers, the first takeaway is that everyone takes our business seriously. We haven’t seen a single major company that has never tried to implement AI in some form so far. We are also reaching maturity in terms of the data infrastructure that would support the deployment of this kind of solution. This required a lot of investment over a long period of time. There’s finally something that produces payback for this investment now. The third one is that we're seeing companies trying to do this themselves and then coming back from this decision because they don't want to do it on their own anymore. That's how we gained one of our first customers. This solution can be applied across different factories, machines, and teams in the same factory that needs to be implemented and maintained in very close collaboration with IT and their quality team, because every new tool or new production process you introduce needs to be vetted there. To execute this, you need to have a transparent and efficient communication and sharing of information between those teams who work a little bit in silos. Companies that try to do this on their own often have difficulty breaking those silos, but we can provide a solution for that. What do you think are the most useful qualities for an entrepreneur in this space? What personal skills do you believe helped you to grow that fast and to that scale? The first one is to be stubborn and tenacious. We are talking about people who have a day job, where they need to run a factory with 3,000 people. So if they get on a call about something they're going to be skeptical of, you have to keep trying and also be open to understand what works and what doesn’t and adjust your message based on that. Another one is having an ability to structure things quickly, even though you're working in a very unstructured environment. So maybe you just developed one part of your product and you don't exactly know how it works, but you need to be able to go in front of a customer and present a structured deployment process and say how it’s going to work and what the process is. The last one is most relevant to working at Lynceus. Whether in consulting, or at Uber and Circ, I worked with like-minded people - very operational with the “let's go and tackle the project” approach. Here, working at Lynceus, I need a different set of skills. My co-founder is an AI researcher who's worked in a lab his whole life on a different type of scale and timelines and everything. And so it's crucial to be able to open up and listen to people and accept other ways of working, but at the same time be conscious of the strengths and the skills that come from your experience. It's keeping the best of what you learned while being able to adapt it and make sure it fits with the other types of skills that you need.

The Future of Chip Making: Using AI to Minimize Testing and Maximize Throughput

In the entrepreneurial world, venture capital (VC) is often viewed as an ideal way for startups to realize their ideas. And why not? 2022 saw VC investments reaching $200 billion. However, its drop in Q4 underscores the funding’s volatility. 14% Relying too much on VC can expose startups to market shifts and changing investor moods, leading to financial instability. Startups must evaluate if VC truly aligns with their needs by understanding its . advantages and drawbacks So, what are the other funding alternatives if VC isn’t the right fit? Here's a snapshot of seven other ways to secure capital. #1. Revenue Based Financing " " is a funding model where a business secures capital from investors by sharing a portion of its ongoing revenue. Revenue Based Financing Under this arrangement, the business commits to making regular payments to investors, calculated as a predetermined percentage of its monthly or quarterly revenue. These payments continue until a specified return on investment (ROI) is achieved. Once the agreed-upon ROI milestone is met, the financing arrangement ends. RBF is a financing strategy employed by many successful startups and businesses with consistent revenue streams. Let’s dig into its pros and cons. Pros of RBF Founders maintain control and ownership as there is no equity dilution. Ownership: There's no risk to personal assets since personal guarantees aren't necessary. Security: Monthly payments adjust according to revenue, preventing large fixed payments. Flexible Payments: Cons of RBF RBF is not apt for pre-revenue startups since having an existing revenue is a prerequisite. Revenue Requirement: The initial capital received might be less compared to other financing options. Funding Amount: #2. TBF: True Sale Based Financing True Sale Based Financing is a financing method where businesses sell assets, such as accounts receivables and annual and multi-year contracts, for immediate cash. This entails an actual transfer of asset ownership. To determine if TBF is right for a business, it's essential to evaluate its pros and cons. Pros of TBF Converts fixed assets into cash, enhancing liquidity without incurring debt. Liquidity Boost: Offers growth capital without sacrificing ownership. Ownership Protection: Buyers often view these assets as lower-risk, making them valuable selling propositions for businesses. Asset Appeal: Businesses have the discretion to choose which contracts or assets to sell, allowing for tailored cash flow strategies. Customized Cash Flow: Cons of TBF Best suited for businesses with tangible contracts and assets. Eligibility: It can be tricky to identify and select assets that are both saleable and attractive to buyers. Selection Challenge: Once an asset is sold through TBF, it's no longer under the original owner's control. Loss of Control: The process involves meticulous financial structuring due to potential legal contract terms and risks of non-payment. Contractual Nuances: #3. Crowdfunding is a method where individuals collectively finance new business ventures, projects, or ideas, primarily via online platforms and social media. It has revolutionized the fundraising landscape, allowing entrepreneurs to present their concepts to a broad and diverse audience. Crowdfunding This method grants many entrepreneurs the chance to gather significant capital from a community of backers, thus democratizing access to funds. To make an informed decision about crowdfunding, it's essential to comprehend its advantages and drawbacks. Pros of Crowdfunding Funds raised from numerous backers might not necessitate repayment. No Repayment Requirement: Crowdfunding campaigns operate without delving into credit history. No Credit Checks: Supportive Community: Crowdfunding can build a vast and varied network of supporters. Feedback Channel: It offers valuable insights and feedback from potential users or customers. Cons of Crowdfunding If the fundraising target isn't met, the money might not be received. All-or-Nothing: Successful campaigns demand a lot of time for management and promotion. Time-Intensive: The breadth of backers might mean limited specialized guidance or expertise. Limited Mentorship: Large-scale funding might trigger regulatory checks or financial scrutiny. Regulatory Hurdles: #4. P2P Lending , or "crowd lending," introduces a groundbreaking approach to obtaining loans directly from individuals, circumventing the need for traditional banks or financial institutions. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending In terms of security, P2P networks prioritize safeguarding your personal and financial information, offering a level of protection similar to that of conventional banks. While this method opens up alternative financing avenues for non-traditional borrowers, it often comes with higher fees and interest rates, necessitating carefully examining the platform's terms and fees before engaging in a P2P loan or investment. It's important to acknowledge that P2P lending carries a higher default risk than conventional financial lending, underscoring the importance of a comprehensive assessment of its pros and cons. Pros of P2P Lending It often offers better returns compared to conventional funding sources. Higher Returns: Startups can tap into a wide pool of individual lenders, enhancing financial support diversity. Diverse Financial Assistance: Provides startups with adaptable loan structures, enabling customization according to specific requirements. Flexible Terms: Generally, P2P platforms can facilitate quicker loan disbursements than traditional methods. Speedy Funding: Cons of P2P Lending: The interest rates might be steeper, making the capital more expensive. Higher Interest Rates: This might not be suitable for startups needing significant amounts of capital. Limited Funding: If startups struggle to meet repayments, it can result in defaults and harm the relationship with lenders. Repayment Risks: #5. Angel Investor Securing funding for startups is a substantial challenge. offer a unique solution by trading capital for equity. They inject seed money to turn concepts into reality and take calculated risks based on belief in the idea. Angel investors Angel investors also bring valuable expertise and mentorship, boosting founders' confidence in tackling challenges. But it's vital to note that angel investments typically make up a modest portion, , of an investor's overall portfolio. often less than 10% While this may seem reliable, there are strings attached. To make informed decisions, it's crucial to weigh the pros and cons associated with this funding alternative. Pros of Using an Angel Investor They often invest during the initial phases when it's tough for startups to get funding elsewhere. Early-Stage Funding: Angel investors frequently bring valuable knowledge and insights, aiding in strategic decisions. Industry Expertise: Their extensive connections can open doors to partnerships, clients, and other essential resources. Networking Opportunities: Angel investors can offer terms tailored to the specific needs and situations of startups. Flexible Terms: Cons of Using an Angel Investor Engaging with angel investors often means parting with a share of the company, which can dilute the founder's stake. Equity Sacrifice: Disagreements may arise if the startup's goals and the investor's expectations aren't aligned. Potential Conflicts: There's a cap to how much individual angels can or are willing to invest. Limited Capital: #6. R&D Tax Credit are incentives provided by governments to encourage companies to invest in innovation. For a comprehensive understanding of the R&D tax credit, it is suggested that you refer to of the Internal Revenue Code. Research and Development (R&D) tax credits Section 41 They can be a valuable source of funds for many companies, but they also come with their own set of challenges. Pros of R&D Tax Credit Companies can access cash faster, potentially up to 9 months earlier than usual. Quick Liquidity: Businesses can benefit from this source of funding without having to give away equity. Maintain Ownership: Acts as a flexible financial avenue when other sources might not be available or might be too costly. Alternative Funding: Cons of R&D Tax Credit Securing these credits can be intricate and demands meticulous documentation and record-keeping. Complex Process: Maximum benefits can be reaped only if there's a considerable existing tax liability, which may not always be the case for startups or smaller companies. Tax Liability Requirement: What qualifies as R&D can be ambiguous, and differing interpretations can lead to disputes or disagreements. Subjectivity: Available only to US-based companies. Accessibility: #7. Startup Loans are financial instruments offered by banks and NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies) designed to meet the unique needs of budding businesses. These loans can be instrumental in fueling growth for new ventures. Startup loans However, like any financial solution, startup loans come with their set of benefits and challenges. Pros of Startup Loans Offers quick access to much-needed funds, sometimes disbursing within as short as 48 hours post-approval. Immediate Capital: Businesses can obtain the capital they need without relinquishing any stake in their company, allowing for gradual payback over time. Retain Ownership: Typically, startup loans offer more favorable interest rates than personal loans, coupled with flexible repayment terms, making them an attractive choice for enterprises. Competitive Interest Rates: Cons of Startup Loans Obtaining these loans might demand stringent criteria, such as a robust credit score, certain revenue thresholds, and an established business history. Eligibility Challenges: Startups might face cash flow pressures due to EMIs, especially if they opt for short-term loans or borrow significant amounts. Potential Cash Flow Impact: Some lenders might require a personal guarantee from the business owners, which could place them at risk if the business doesn't fare well. Personal Guarantees: Hope you found the curation of seven alternatives to VC funding insightful. The selection criterion is highly subjective to the unique state of a business. Making the Right Choice Not all businesses experience the same results with venture capital. While companies like Dropbox and Airbnb saw growth with VC backing, others like Theranos and Quibi faced challenges due to a combination of poor product-market fit, governance issues, and market dynamics despite substantial VC support. For startups that have revenue coming in, tools like TBF and RBF are options that relate payments to earnings. On the other hand, early-stage startups, still in the pre-revenue phase, often explore avenues like angel investments or startup loans. Engaging with professionals or sifting through the wealth of information online might offer deeper insights. After all, every startup's journey is unique, and so is its funding choice.

Why Is Venture Capital Not the Only Funding Option for Startups?

Dedicated to Borderlands Books

123 Stories To Learn About Youtube Transcripts

I led the growth team at Codecademy and helped the company grow from $10M in ARR to $50M ARR+ before it . sold to a company called Skillsoft for $525M last year I learned a lot about the details that make B2C SaaS/Recurring revenue business models work well that I have yet to see written down anywhere. My real motivation here is to help the companies that have achieved a good product market fit and have yet to figure out how to make money. To survive in the long term, you need to do both, and plenty of great products have died because they didn't build out the business side fast enough. These lessons directly apply to freemium/SaaS businesses and (probably?) apply to other recurring revenue businesses such as subscription e-commerce, agencies, consulting, etc. I plan to cover the following: The mistakes we made and lessons we learned The most effective levers we found at each layer of the business (Payments, Churn Reduction, Extending Lifecycles of Users, Pricing and Packaging, Trials/Paywalls) COMPANY CONTEXT Codecademy, for those unfamiliar, is a B2C tech education platform that focuses on taking total beginners and getting them to a medium level of technical skills. The company started in 2011 and built what I still think is the best free learn-to-code product online. As all "advice" really depends on the context that it's coming from, here is where we were at as a company in roughly 2017 : Very strong, low-cost free user acquisition driven by the free product, excellent brand name, and strong SEO ranking Product market fit in the free product for users who are early-stage learners (i.e., not professional software engineers) Short/Intermittent usage patterns across all users - E.g., they show up for a few weeks/months to learn something, then leave for a while, then maybe come back in a few months/years. Not the best use case, but a solid one A paid product that was built but was still being figured out. TL;DR - We had a lot of free users but were terrible at converting them to paid and monetizing them. The final bit of context is that I am a product manager, so most of our work was on the product rather than in marketing channels. We did have a great marketing team; however, I'll mainly talk about what I implemented firsthand and saw work. THINGS WE SCREWED UP Like most first-time growth teams, we made many of the classic mistakes in our first year. The most painful/memorable of those are: 1. Not understanding what to A/B test vs. just shipping it When we first tried to set up an A/B testing program, we got way too lost in the concept of "measuring" all of the impacts that we were having and not making any "assumptions". That was dumb. We actually debated if we should have a pricing page on the site and how we might measure that impact. I remember that adding a pricing page to the header had a small to medium-sized impact on conversion, which is great in theory... However, I would actually consider that one a loss, as we should have had this in the header the whole time. Don't debate the best practices, just implement them and figure our where you should break them. 2. Launching giant projects without enough due diligence The flip side of this, is that you should not assume that A/B testing is an excuse not to due the due diligence that you need on big projects. I think we shipped 3 different pricing page "layouts" to see which was more effective. I think that it took two months to run, was super expensive from a design and engineering perspective, blocked other tests and in the end, we didn't learn anything. We should have just made a decision. 3. Thinking of ideas that were "fun" or "fancy." One of the tenets of "Growth" is that you should be able to test any idea that you have a solid hypothesis behind. While I think this is valuable, its way more important to start with a solid foundation of best practices in your area. The "fancy" ideas (such as "running subway ads" or "partnering with influencers") only work if you have a solid funnel to drive this traffic into. 4. Working in the wrong areas of the application As I mentioned above, we re-designed our pricing page twice before realizing that a very small % of users purchase right from that page.  Most are purchased right from the product itself without going back to pricing. 5. Not iterating on good ideas that didn't work out the first time In retrospect, we moved on way too quickly from ideas that we had decent confidence in that didn't work the first time. If you are hitting a real customer problem, you did your research and V1 isn't working out, then I would take another shot. 6. Not implementing best practices fast enough As mentioned above, don't A/B test the basics.  Just ship them. 7. Not thinking through if a small win was worth the complexity that we're adding to the system & company operations. When you combine this with the friction of getting all the necessary tooling set up, learning how to run an A/B testing program, and building out the team.... this wasn't our best year. Additionally, B2C SaaS and subscription businesses can be tricky to grow for a few reasons, especially when paired with a free product/tier. These businesses can take a lot longer to grow because you aren't going to close a big enterprise contract, and scaling paid media is more challenging. The value you capture from users is spread across their lifecycle, so being confident about your LTV and the spending in marketing channels is hard (not impossible, but hard) Any time you do something like test new pricing (which you should), you can't really know the impact on LTV because those new users haven't reached the end of their lifecycle. When you're also running a big free product, it is hard to run direct response style paid media effectively as you can't really prevent users from finding the free product. Understanding payback periods for ad spend gets more challenging when they might spend variable amounts of time in the free tier based on the audience. OUR BIGGEST LESSONS Recurring revenue businesses are basically structured like the above diagram. Many companies go wrong because they only focus on making acquisition cheaper and faster when in reality, you should also have been systematically improving LTV to afford higher acquisition costs. There is a Dan Kennedy quote, which is something like: "The business that can pay the most to acquire the customer will win." Assuming that you don't have a bunch of VC money light on fire (and even if you do), the best chance that you have in the long term is figuring out to better monetize each monthly cohort of users and increase your overall LTV, which will allow you to spend more to acquire more customers profitably. Here is what I would advise companies in a similar place to do. This is a path toward reliably making improvements, not seeing giant lifts. 1. Figure out monetization early in your product/company's life. Everything gets more expensive to change the longer you wait. It involves convincing people, changing more code, retraining more sales/customer service people, etc. Every cohort that you under-monetize during your early years is money that you're never getting back. 2. While speed is essential in all businesses, it's extra important in subscription businesses Subscription businesses are slower to scale than most B2B businesses because most of your customers will pay incrementally across their lifecycle. You are not likely to close a big enterprise account that allows you to collect a lot of cash upfront. Because of this, every missed cohort of users that you didn't monetize well is a lost forever. The faster you get the best practices running, the more revenue you'll have to compound the following years. Don't overthink the fundamentals. 3. Work from the bottom of the funnel upwards unless you have a good reason not to. You're active paying users are hands down the most valuable to you. You don't want to lose them for things like payment failures that could have been prevented. If you are in a company that drives decisions based on A/B tests, you will be beholden to a concept called minimum detectable effect (MDE). MDE is, basically, the smallest lift you can measure with statistical significance (which basically translates to confidence). So if you have a high MDE, say 20%, and you ship a test that improves something by 19.99%, you won't be able to measure with statistical significance. There are ways of compensating for this, but this makes testing hard. The worse your overall conversion is, the larger the MDE will be, which makes A/B testing harder. But the upside is that improving things at the bottom of your funnel will lower (a good thing) the MDE, which raises the accuracy of your ability to measure things above it in the funnel. 4. It's hard to convince people to pay you money, so start by finding all the people who are trying to pay you, and it's not working Find all the dead ends and confusion across your product and fix those. Ensure the checkout page error states are clear, that any payment integrations aren't broken in specific browsers, etc. Are the bugs that happen during certain edge cases in important parts of the app? 5. Try to keep complexity low. Your goal is to keep development and operational speed fast, so check that any changes you make are worth the maintenance costs. For example, Suppose you find that setting up custom price structures per country raises revenue. From now on, the finance team will need to build multiple models to forecast revenue, the customer service now needs multiple sets of auto-responses, etc. 6. Focus where most users are and focus on improving clarity. Try to find the places in your product that most users are converting from and ensure that you're setting context correctly the step before. Try to find the places in your product that most users are converting from and ensure that you're setting context correctly the step before. One of our most successful tests on our homepage changed the primary CTA from "Start Coding" to "Sign Up." Most of the time, we were cute with copy or messaging; it hurt us. Conclusion Setting up the basics of a monetization system makes a world of difference as your company grows. The cohorts that sign up and don’t monetize are likely gone forever, so it really, really pays to set up a strong foundation. If you can get to a place with a strong checkout page, pricing structure, paywall, payment processing and churn appeasements, then you’ll be better than 90% of early-stage companies. Also published . here

Giant Mistakes and Successes: Lessons From Growing Codeacademy's Revenue From $10M To $50M

বিশাল ভুল এবং সাফল্য: কোডএকাডেমির আয় $10M থেকে $50M বৃদ্ধির থেকে শিক্ষা

Riesige Fehler und Erfolge: Lehren aus der Umsatzsteigerung der Codeacademy von 10 Millionen US-Dollar auf 50 Millionen US-Dollar

Grandes errores y éxitos: lecciones del aumento de los ingresos de Codeacademy de 10 millones de dólares a 50 millones de dólares

Erreurs et réussites géantes : leçons tirées de l'augmentation des revenus de Codeacademy de 10 millions de dollars à 50 millions de dollars

बड़ी गलतियाँ और सफलताएँ: Codeacademy का राजस्व $10M से $50M तक बढ़ने से सबक

大きな失敗と成功: Codeacademy の収益が 1,000 万ドルから 5,000 万ドルに成長したことから得た教訓

거대한 실수와 성공: Codeacademy의 수익이 1,000만 달러에서 5,000만 달러로 성장하면서 얻은 교훈

Erros e sucessos gigantes: lições do aumento da receita da Codeacademy de US$ 10 milhões para US$ 50 milhões

Dev Hatalar ve Başarılar: Codeacademy'nin Gelirini 10 Milyon Dolardan 50 Milyon Dolara Çıkarmaktan Dersler

Những sai lầm và thành công lớn: Bài học từ việc tăng doanh thu của Codeacademy từ 10 triệu USD lên 50 triệu USD

巨大的错误和成功：Codeacademy 收入从 1000 万美元增长到 5000 万美元的经验教训

Let's learn about via these 55 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Peace Itimi /Learn Repo 1. #FoundersConnect: Mariam Jimoh, CEO & Founder of Oja (Ethnic Grocery Delivery Startup) Peace speaks with Mariam about her grocery startup for afrocarribean people living in the diaspora. 2. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Hanu Agbodje, the Founder and the CEO of Patricia In this episode, Peace Itimi interviews Hanu Agbodje, CEO of Patricia, on his journey as a tech entrepreneur and 3. #FoundersConnect: Abdul Hassan, CEO & Founder of Mono, Backed by Ycombinator #FoundersConnect: Abdul Hassan, CEO & Founder of Mono, Backed by Ycombinator 4. #FoundersConnect: Chimezie Emewulu, Co-Founder and MD of Seamfix Limited. Conversation with an OG Founder, Chimezie Emewulu, Co-founder and CEO of Seamfix. 5. The co-CEOs of Printivo, Temitope Ekundayo and Ibukun Oloyede on How to Run a Company Peace interviews co-CEOs of Temitope Ekundayo and Ibukun Oloyede or Printivo, a solution enabling small and medium enterprises to print items seamlessly. 6. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Chijioke Dozie, the CEO of Carbon Peace interviews Chijioke Dozie, CEO of $15.8 million VC-backed company, Carbon on his journey as a tech entrepreneur. 7. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Nadayar Enegesi, CEO of Eden Life & Co-founder of Andela Peace interviews Nadayar Enegesi, the Co-founder and CEO of Eden Life a tech-enabled service that puts its users' home chores on autopilot. 8. #FoundersConnect (Music): Rebecca Inyang Junaid Founder of JustJoJo (Music Publishing) A conversation with Rebecca Inyang Junaid, Founder of JustJojo Entertainment, a music agency based in the UK on career, life and experiences. 9. #FoundersConnect: How Erika Brodnock, Founder of Kami, Uses Tech to Improve the Lives of Families Peace speaks with Erika Brodnock, Founder of Kami app. 10. #FoundersConnect: An Interview With Bernard Parah, CEO of Bitnob Bernard Parah, CEO of Bitnob, a Bitcoin centred payment service shares his love for cryptocurrency and the plans for his growing Startup with me. 11. Ayo Akindele, Founder and CEO of Kyshi Interview with Ayo Akindele, of Kyshi, a payment startup for transnational money transactions. 12. #FoundersConnect - Bayo ‘Lion’ Adedeji: CEO, Wakanow & Founder, Dundu Nation & Wave Beach In this interview I have a conversation with Bayo Adedeji concerning how work at Wakanow and his extensive journey as an entrepreneur. 13. #FoundersConnect: Kay Akinwunmi, Co-Founder & CEO of Zazuu, A Transborder Payment Company Kay, Co-founder and CEO of Zazuu, speaks to me about his platform that allows money transfers across border with ease, his background and journey. 14. Adewale Yusuf, Co-founder TalentQL, on Helping Young Africans Launch Their Tech Careers Peace interviews Adewale Yusuf, serial entrepreneur with a demonstrated history in EdTech,  with building Talent QL, Techpoint Africa and AltSchool. 15. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Musty Mustapha, Co-Founder & CTO of Kuda Peace Interviews Co-Founder of Kuda Bank, Musty Mustapha on his journey as a tech entrepreneur, experiences and lessons. 16. #FoundersConnect: Douglas Kendyson of Selar on Hitting Huge Revenue Milestones Peace sits with Douglas Kendyson, CEO and founder of Selar for a fun and elucidating interview on his journey and his company. 17. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Yinka Adewale, the CEO of Kudi Peace interviews Yinka Adewale, CEO of Kudi, a Start-up that offers seamless banking services to communities in Africa. 18. #FoundersConnect: How Kemi Olawoye Is Building BabyMigo, Nigeria's Largest Parenting Community Kemi shares her journey building Babymigo, Nigeria's largest Parenting Community 19. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Michael 'Trojan' Okoh - Co-founder and CTO, ThePeer 22-year old Founder of ThePeer, Michael Trojan Okoh, shares his story with me. 20. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Yanmo Omorogbe, Co-Founder of Invest Bamboo Peace interviews Yanmo Omorogbe, Co-founder of Invest Bamboo, on her "accidental" journey into entrepreneurship, running Bamboo and biggest wins and lessons. 21. Interview with Ezra Olubi, CTO of Paystack, on Getting Acquired by Stripe Peace interviews Ezra Olubi, co-founder and CTO of Paystack as he shares the Paystack story. 22. #FoundersConnect: Njoku Emmanuel, the 19-year-old CEO & Co-founder of Lazerpay Interview with Lazerpay co-founder & CEO, Njoku Emmanuel. 23. #FoundersConnect: Duncan Muchangi, Principal @ Unicorn Growth, Former MD, Jumia Group & Antler E.A Interview with Kenyan VC, Duncan Muchangi and founder of Unicorn Growth Capital. 24. #FoundersConnect: How Preston Ideh is building Africa's Largest Intelligence Startup, Stears. Interview with Preston Ideh, CEO and Co-founder of Stears. 25. #FoundersConnect: Wale Adetula, Co-Founder of TNC Africa Interview with Wale Adetula, the Founder of one of Nigeria's pioneer Media companies, TNC Africa. 26. #FoundersConnect: Peter Bunor Jr., From Nollywood Child Actor, to Co-Founder of Field Intelligence Peace interviews Nollywood Child Actor turned Founder, Peter Bunor of Field Intelligence. 27. #FoundersConnect (Music): Interview with Toba Adeyanju, CEO of Ejoya Music I sit with Toba Adeyanju, CEO of Ejoya Music, a startup music company, on his journey, insights and plans for the future. 28. FoundersConnect: Interview with Kelvin Umechukwu, CEO and co-Founder of Bumpa Kelvin Umechukwu, CEO of Bumpa,  shares his journey into entrepreneurship and the role of community in effecting change. 29. Interview with the Founder of Money Africa: Financial Education, Investing, and More Peace interviews Oluwatosin Olaseinde, founder of Money Africa and Ladda on her journey as a startup founder, biggest life lessons and future plans. 30. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Onyeka Akumah, CEO Farmcrowdy & Co-founder CrowdyVest, PlentyWaka Peace interviews Onyeka Akumah, CEO of Farmcrowdy, and co-founder at Plentywaka, Crowdyvest and Rent Smallsmall on his journey as a tech entrepreneur. 31. Yele Bademosi, Founder of Bundle Africa, Talks About Tech Entrepreneurship Peace speaks with Yele Bademosi, founder of Bundle Africa, Microtraction and co-Founder of Nestcoin, in a lengthy and elucidating interview. 32. Interview with Atsu Davoh, Founder of Bitsika, on Creating a Payment App in Africa Peace sits down with Atsu Davoh, Founder & CEO of Bitsika. Bitsika is a payments app for making transactions. 33. The Founder & CEO of Kudigo Talks About Tech Startups in Ghana Peace interviews Kingsley Abrokwah, serial entrepreneur and founder of Kudigo, a software solution for retail businesses in Africa. 34. #FoundersConnect: Odun Eweniyi, Co-Founder of Piggyvest, Africa's Top Savings App Odun Eweniyi, coFounder of Piggyvest, FirstCheck Africa and the Feminist Coalition shares her journey with me. 35. #FoundersConnect: Eyitayo Ogunmola, Founder of Utiva, an African Ed-tech Startup I speak with Eyitayo Ogunmola, the CEO of Utiva, an education service for Africans and people of colour entering the tech industry. 36. #FoundersConnect - Ized Uanikhehi, CEO of Loose Media, and Her Advice for Tech Marketers Peace interviews Ized Uanikhehi, Media professional and CEO of Loose Media on her journey, experiences and advice. 37. #FoundersConnect: Tosin Faniro-Dada, MD /CEO of Endeavor (Nigeria) Peace has a conversation with Tosin Faniro-Dada, the MD & CEO of Endeavor in Nigeria, about her career and her passion for helping entrepreneurs. 38. #FoundersConnect: Moe Odele - Tech Lawyer, Human Rights Advocate & Travel Enthusiast Peace speaks to Moe "Moechievous" Odele, about her life and career, growing up in a polygamous family, studying law and finding tech law. 39. #FoundersConnect: Babajide Duroshola, General Manager at M-KOPA & ex-Country Director, SafeBoda (NG) I speak with Babajide Duroshola, the General Manager at M-Kopa with years of experience managing startups about his journey and work. 40. #FoundersConnect: Ben Lyon, CEO and CoFounder of Stax, an Offline Payment App for Africans Conversation with Ben Lyon of Hover Developer Services, the parent company of Stax, a simple way to carry out payment services without internet or USSD codes. 41. #FoundersConnect: Bunmi Akinyemiju, Partner at GreenHouse Capital, Former CEO Venture Garden Group I speak with Bunmi Akinyemiju, one of the biggest investors in the African startup space, and Founding Partner at GreenHouse Capital. 42. #FoundersConnect: Ijeoma Akwiwu, Lawyer, Developer, and Co-founder of Pivo, a Digital Bank Peace speaks with Ijeoma Akwiwu, the Co-founder and COO of Pivo, a bank for trade. 43. #FoundersConnect: Tomiwa Aladekomo, The Man behind Big Cabal Media (Techcabal & Zikoko) Peace speaks with Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO of BigCabal, the parent company of Zikoko, a media company that creates content for African youth, and TechCabal. 44. #FoundersConnect: Adia Sowho, CMO of MTN Nigeria Peace speaks with Adia Sowho, CMO of MTN Nigeria, on her life and journey. This interview is one you definitely should not miss! 45. #FoundersConnect: Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph, CEO of Kippa, a Company Helping Small businesses Grow. I have a conversation with Kippa's CEO & Co-Founder, Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph. 46. #FoundersConnect: Koromone Koroye, Managing Editor of TechCabal Conversation with Koromone Koroye, Managing Editor of TechCabal on her interesting life experiences, thoughts of religion, work culture and more! 47. #FoundersConnect - Interview with Rodney Jackson-Cole, Cofounder and CTO at Prospa (YC W21) Rodney Jackson-Cole is the CTO of Prospa, a company set out to aid African entrepreneurs. Peace finds out more about his mission and journey in this episode. 48. #FoundersConnect: Ameyaw Debrah, the Founder of Ameyawdebrah.com | Ghanaian Celebrity Blogger Peace has a conversation with Ameyaw Debrah, Ghanaian celebrity blogger and founder of Ameyawdebrah.com, a lifestyle news blog about media, his life, and more. 49. #Founders Connect: Moses Enenwali, CEO & Co-founder of Topship (YC W 2022) Peace speaks with Moses Enenwali, the CEO and Co-founder of Topship, a fast-growing Logistics startup in Africa. 50. #FoundersConnect: Jude Dike, CoFounder and CEO of GetEquity Conversation with Jude Dike, co-Founder of GetEquity, a company democratizing access to startup investment in Africa. 51. #FoundersConnect: Marvin Coleby, Co-Founder and CEO of Raise Marvin Coleby is building Raise, an equity management platform with a vision for Panafrican unity. He shares his background, startup and experiences with me. 52. #FoundersConnect: Godwin Tom, Serial Entrepreneur, Music Business Mogul & CEO of iMANAGE AFRICA Conversation with Godwin Tom, an expert in music management and CEO of iMANAGE Africa on his journey, his work, and the future. 53. Interview with the Cofounder of Helicarrier (Formerly, Buycoins) on Crypto in Africa Peace interviews Tomiwa Lasebikan, co-founder and head of product at Helicarrier, a product dedicated to connecting Africans with financial solutions. 54. #FoundersConnect: Florence Githinji, Regional Marketing Manager at YellowCard Conversation with Florence Githinji, Regional Marketing Manager of Yellowcard. 55. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Lotanna Nwose, Co-founder of Investsika I sit with Investsika's Co-Founder, Lotanna Nwose and we discuss his passion for stock accessibility and entrepreneurship and desires to provide this in Ghana. Thank you for checking out the 55 most read stories about Peace Itimi on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo

55 Stories To Learn About Peace Itimi

TitleMax: A Look Inside Its Controversial Sales Practices

I started out as a frontend developer and went through all standard stages: from a junior to a senior and a team lead and, later, to the head of a department. The next logical step was, of course, a CTO. And it was only several years later that I learned that my ideas about this role had been far from reality. This article is about how I became CTO at a large-scale company and learned the rules of the game by experience. If you are interested in what this job is about or planning on taking on this position, welcome on board! Who I Am Everything I’m going to share is my personal experience hard won during 17 years of work in tech. In a nutshell, it was like this. In my youth, I was your typical geeky loner who then graduated from one of the top Russian technical universities and could imagine himself only as a tech guy. When I got my first job, I felt that I was good at noticing the mistakes of my superiors and decided that I could do it right if I were in their position. That’s why I moved forward at a very fast pace and got four promotions in five years. The next highest position in my company was CTO. And that’s what I aimed for: the title sounds good and offers lots of opportunities to do things right. But the company didn’t need a new CTO at the time. I was young, eager and rushed forward, so my friends and I decided to launch a startup. For the next eight years, I was an entrepreneur, founding and selling, founding and selling companies. In all these cases, I essentially assumed the position of Head of Engineering. Then came 2019 when I realized that I was ready for employment. Just like that, I became CTO of a large-scale e-commerce company, Citilink. Next year, in 2020, I got an offer that I couldn’t refuse from Lamoda. In fact, my path as CTO started a lot earlier but it’s been official for the last four years only. And it seems that I was doing some other stuff between the time when I first dreamt about it and the actual work as CTO. This journey has brought me to a position where I could draw a comparison between my dream and reality. The results shocked me at first, then I hated them, but finally came the acceptance. Now it’s time to share them. Partnership As they say, first impressions count. In my case, it was an absolute surprise because I was interviewed by CEO who was by no means a tech guy. No directors with whom I communicated were tech-savvy. They were looking for CTO who would be smarter than them and would deal with all technical matters. They themselves were exceptionally talented business managers, driving the growth of their companies. But they had nothing to do with technology. And what were they talking about during the interviews? Each of them did it the same way: their main objective was to find a person who would help them grow their business. Both times (in Citilink and Lamoda) we talked about what I had done for business growth. If I worked for a company, then what was its business objective at the time? What were the shareholder’s purposes, what did CEO want, and did I achieve what they wanted? If so, then how? Why this way and not another one? It was important for them that I understood CEO’s and business objectives and contributed to their achievement. So, this was the first lesson I learnt from the first interview: If you want to be CTO you need to become a business partner, the person who helps CEOs grow businesses and achieve their objectives, namely growth, be it turnover, capitalization, profits, customer base, and so on. It was important not only for passing the interviews: it also helps work and build trust with CEO and your colleagues. If you want the business to grow the same way your colleagues do, you will belong and be trusted. Even more, you will be allocated the resources you need and your opinion will matter in any conflict situation. If you close up and become defensive (as in “we are IT, and nobody from the outside can understand us”) you will lose. Sooner or later, the conflict will become evident, cracks will open, sparks will fly, and somebody will get fired. Communications Imagine: you are entering a room with nine people who know almost nothing about technology. You have been working in tech for 17 years, and they haven’t written a line of code in their lives. But they are smart and influential people, they make decisions about your budget and whether you can complete your project or introduce new technologies. In the end, they decide on corporate policies: for example, whether to allow your developers to work remotely or not. These people are your management board, a managerial body CTO is part of. Now imagine that you need to explain to these people that your monolith platform requires refactoring. It will cost 60% of the company’s budget for growth and will last 1.5 years (or maybe even two), and if you don’t do this, the company will suffer. You need to explain this to people who know nothing about technology and even if they do, their knowledge is very limited. This case is your typical working day as a CTO. You work with these people on a daily basis, and they decide on many steps you take. You need to be convincing and clear so that they wanted to agree with you even if they don’t have your 17 years in the industry. Once, I had to keep my ground against the Board of Directors (which is the next level of the management, the company’s shareholders) to persuade them to spend two million dollars on a new data storage system. This turned out to be one of the most difficult communication situations in my whole life. Behind me was my team, who needed appropriate equipment to do their work, and before me was a shareholder who could hear only: “Give me two million” from my speech about the issues with queues and the importance of the upgrade. And this isn’t so surprising: after all, it’s his personal income that he already decided to spend on a new yacht. I was able to solve this problem and, to be honest, I am proud of myself. Here is the magic: a shareholder doesn’t like to spend but he likes to earn. In his experience, it is the Business Development Manager or the Marketing Director who earns money, while the Head of Engineering just spends all the time: and the shareholder already dealt with dozens of tech guys who kept asking for money! Turns out you can actually pique a shareholder’s interest, but only if you discuss potential extra income with him. That’s why my first approach failed: I kept telling him about the spending and couldn’t understand why he couldn’t recognize the seriousness of the problem. In the end, I turned my request into an investment package: you give us X money now, and we return 3X in three years. We calculated the increases in the page load rate and SEO traffic, as well as in the conversion rates during the holidays when the demand is the highest. We also ensured that the issue with order delivery would be solved (because all order tracking systems were installed on these machines and, at peak loads, pickup points received order information only several hours later). Only business people usually promise a return on investments and we, tech guys, partnered up with them. Being a reasonable person, the shareholder agreed: because three yachts are way better than one. That’s how we got much more than two million for our new software. So, that’s what CTO’s daily life looks like. You communicate with people who are very smart but don’t know anything about technology and don’t even want to talk about them. Because it's your job to know all about the technologies. And you need to do whatever it takes to reach understanding. Strategic vision The third pain point catches up on you later, and it is not so obvious. You work and make some decisions every week. They can be quick fixes or long-term solutions: what architecture to choose, whether to split a monolith, to migrate from a data center to a cloud solution or vice versa, to which degree to use import phase-out, what to buy and what to develop internally. Nobody can answer these questions better than you. Just remember that it is important to be a business partner and to earn trust. And the easiest way to earn trust is to focus on quick wins when you do your best to resolve immediate and urgent problems. For example, quickly release a feature much expected by the stakeholders. And it doesn’t matter at all that you achieved it with crutches and overtimes. And it’s important because it creates trust, with you demonstrating the spirit of business partnership. Problems start to arise when you realize that, for these quick wins, you will have to sacrifice the long-term future of the company. Your team can work overtime and your feature will be released by Monday. But if you do it too often, people will burn out and leave, causing a drop in the number of tasks you can complete. You can release your feature with crutches. But if you do it every week, you will end up with an architectural cul-de-sac instead of a solid architectural environment. You can outsource all the work and, in doing so, avoid difficult problems because you won’t need to compete for talents. But then, in all likelihood, you will be less flexible long term as you won’t have the required competencies. And at some point, when the company needs motivated employees, it will turn out that you don’t have them because you either use out-of-the-box solutions or external teams who are not that much attached to you. You always have to keep a balance between short-term and long-term approaches. You have to demonstrate short-term results: any homo sapiens likes to win, and any manager or colleague likes it when you demonstrate results. If you don’t, you lose the benefit of the doubt. And when you lose it completely, your place will be taken by another CTO with his own strategies. When I was looking for a job, I had a heart-to-heart with an executive search agent. She told me that some of my fellow colleagues are considered bad candidates because they were after short-term benefits and “spoiled the IT landscape”. That’s because they felt pressured into it by the business owners and wanted to be their business partners. This article starts with an emphasis on the importance of business partnership, and here is the paradox: you just can’t solve the quick/long wins issue. This is the burden you will have to carry. This is the work you will have to do. This is the conflict that will persist in you. What is the way out? I’ve been working as a CTO for almost four years and have been searching for an answer to this question all this time. Right now, I am confident about one thing only: you need to have a clear strategic vision. Then, you will have an understanding of where a long-term initiative is crucial and when the company will not succeed without it. Here is an example. We, at Lamoda, believe that a high-caliber team with senior specialists guarantees the health of the organization and its technological sustainability. Sometimes, I feel tempted to take a different road to speed up right here, right now. But then I always remember that expertise is the guarantee of stability for us. To tell you this now or, more importantly, to communicate this message to the CEO when he approaches you with a bundle of ideas (“Let’s do it this way? Why not?”), . You need to have , and the will to stand your ground. you need to have inner conviction vision faith At the same time, you need to be . Defend only what is the most important. And don’t go for quick wins when losses are negligible. wise Do you really want it? My story may look like a path of wins but it’s not by accident that I’m being so dramatic about this: each of these thoughts is a result of hundreds of failures. Up to the point when I was told: “You are a lousy CTO. I advised to fire you.” It hurts. And if you choose this road you will most probably be hurt, too. The experience in software development doesn’t prepare you for the problems awaiting you: you will need to hone your communication skills and become well-versed in business matters and strategies. You will have to spend time on this, while you could spend it upgrading your technical skills. And the question is: does a geek, a graduate from a technical university, or a fan of coding, really need this? Maybe, you will be happier and more successful professionally if you choose a level lower or sideways from this position. I have asked myself this question multiple times. But I always had the thought that kept me going from the very start: “I want everything to be better and cooler after me than it was before me. I want the developers at my company to not have the issues I had. I want to work in the industry that changes for the better every day. I don’t want to give up.” That’s the answer to my question, that’s my motivation. However, payback is inevitable. If you want to do something better than the previous dumb superior, you will sooner or later realize that now the dumb superior is you. But that’s another story. Maybe, I will tell it later.

What You Need to Know before You Start as CTO

Let's learn about via these 61 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Founders Connect /Learn Repo 1. #FoundersConnect: Duncan Muchangi, Principal @ Unicorn Growth, Former MD, Jumia Group & Antler E.A Interview with Kenyan VC, Duncan Muchangi and founder of Unicorn Growth Capital. 2. Interview with Ezra Olubi, CTO of Paystack, on Getting Acquired by Stripe Peace interviews Ezra Olubi, co-founder and CTO of Paystack as he shares the Paystack story. 3. #FoundersConnect: Ijeoma Akwiwu, Lawyer, Developer, and Co-founder of Pivo, a Digital Bank Peace speaks with Ijeoma Akwiwu, the Co-founder and COO of Pivo, a bank for trade. 4. #FoundersConnect: Marvin Coleby, Co-Founder and CEO of Raise Marvin Coleby is building Raise, an equity management platform with a vision for Panafrican unity. He shares his background, startup and experiences with me. 5. Interview with the Cofounder of Helicarrier (Formerly, Buycoins) on Crypto in Africa Peace interviews Tomiwa Lasebikan, co-founder and head of product at Helicarrier, a product dedicated to connecting Africans with financial solutions. 6. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Chijioke Dozie, the CEO of Carbon Peace interviews Chijioke Dozie, CEO of $15.8 million VC-backed company, Carbon on his journey as a tech entrepreneur. 7. #FoundersConnect: Florence Githinji, Regional Marketing Manager at YellowCard Conversation with Florence Githinji, Regional Marketing Manager of Yellowcard. 8. Ayo Akindele, Founder and CEO of Kyshi Interview with Ayo Akindele, of Kyshi, a payment startup for transnational money transactions. 9. #FoundersConnect: Jude Dike, CoFounder and CEO of GetEquity Conversation with Jude Dike, co-Founder of GetEquity, a company democratizing access to startup investment in Africa. 10. #FoundersConnect (Music): Interview with Toba Adeyanju, CEO of Ejoya Music I sit with Toba Adeyanju, CEO of Ejoya Music, a startup music company, on his journey, insights and plans for the future. 11. Adewale Yusuf, Co-founder TalentQL, on Helping Young Africans Launch Their Tech Careers Peace interviews Adewale Yusuf, serial entrepreneur with a demonstrated history in EdTech,  with building Talent QL, Techpoint Africa and AltSchool. 12. #FoundersConnect: An Interview With Bernard Parah, CEO of Bitnob Bernard Parah, CEO of Bitnob, a Bitcoin centred payment service shares his love for cryptocurrency and the plans for his growing Startup with me. 13. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Nadayar Enegesi, CEO of Eden Life & Co-founder of Andela Peace interviews Nadayar Enegesi, the Co-founder and CEO of Eden Life a tech-enabled service that puts its users' home chores on autopilot. 14. #FoundersConnect: Peter Bunor Jr., From Nollywood Child Actor, to Co-Founder of Field Intelligence Peace interviews Nollywood Child Actor turned Founder, Peter Bunor of Field Intelligence. 15. #FoundersConnect - Bayo ‘Lion’ Adedeji: CEO, Wakanow & Founder, Dundu Nation & Wave Beach In this interview I have a conversation with Bayo Adedeji concerning how work at Wakanow and his extensive journey as an entrepreneur. 16. Interview with Atsu Davoh, Founder of Bitsika, on Creating a Payment App in Africa Peace sits down with Atsu Davoh, Founder & CEO of Bitsika. Bitsika is a payments app for making transactions. 17. #FoundersConnect: Wale Adetula, Co-Founder of TNC Africa Interview with Wale Adetula, the Founder of one of Nigeria's pioneer Media companies, TNC Africa. 18. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Onyeka Akumah, CEO Farmcrowdy & Co-founder CrowdyVest, PlentyWaka Peace interviews Onyeka Akumah, CEO of Farmcrowdy, and co-founder at Plentywaka, Crowdyvest and Rent Smallsmall on his journey as a tech entrepreneur. 19. #FoundersConnect: Kay Akinwunmi, Co-Founder & CEO of Zazuu, A Transborder Payment Company Kay, Co-founder and CEO of Zazuu, speaks to me about his platform that allows money transfers across border with ease, his background and journey. 20. The co-CEOs of Printivo, Temitope Ekundayo and Ibukun Oloyede on How to Run a Company Peace interviews co-CEOs of Temitope Ekundayo and Ibukun Oloyede or Printivo, a solution enabling small and medium enterprises to print items seamlessly. 21. #FoundersConnect with Oluwatomi Solanke, Co-founder/CEO of Trove Finance Peace interviews Oluwatomi Solanke, co-founder and CEO of Trove Finance, a micro-investment platform that allows Nigerians to invest in foreign stock markets. 22. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Musty Mustapha, Co-Founder & CTO of Kuda Peace Interviews Co-Founder of Kuda Bank, Musty Mustapha on his journey as a tech entrepreneur, experiences and lessons. 23. #FoundersConnect with Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-founder of Andela & Former MD of Flutterwave Peace interviews Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-founder of Andela on his career journey across various successful projects; mistakes, insights and much more. 24. #FoundersConnect: Douglas Kendyson of Selar on Hitting Huge Revenue Milestones Peace sits with Douglas Kendyson, CEO and founder of Selar for a fun and elucidating interview on his journey and his company. 25. #FoundersConnect: Koromone Koroye, Managing Editor of TechCabal Conversation with Koromone Koroye, Managing Editor of TechCabal on her interesting life experiences, thoughts of religion, work culture and more! 26. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Yinka Adewale, the CEO of Kudi Peace interviews Yinka Adewale, CEO of Kudi, a Start-up that offers seamless banking services to communities in Africa. 27. #FoundersConnect: Njoku Emmanuel, the 19-year-old CEO & Co-founder of Lazerpay Interview with Lazerpay co-founder & CEO, Njoku Emmanuel. 28. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Hanu Agbodje, the Founder and the CEO of Patricia In this episode, Peace Itimi interviews Hanu Agbodje, CEO of Patricia, on his journey as a tech entrepreneur and 29. #Founders Connect: Moses Enenwali, CEO & Co-founder of Topship (YC W 2022) Peace speaks with Moses Enenwali, the CEO and Co-founder of Topship, a fast-growing Logistics startup in Africa. 30. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Lotanna Nwose, Co-founder of Investsika I sit with Investsika's Co-Founder, Lotanna Nwose and we discuss his passion for stock accessibility and entrepreneurship and desires to provide this in Ghana. 31. #FoundersConnect with Damilola Olokesusi, Co-founder & CEO of Shuttlers Peace interviews Damilola Olokesusi, Co-founder and CEO of Shuttlers, a platform that enables its users access efficient shared transportation in Lagos, Nigeria 32. #FoundersConnect: Eyitayo Ogunmola, Founder of Utiva, an African Ed-tech Startup I speak with Eyitayo Ogunmola, the CEO of Utiva, an education service for Africans and people of colour entering the tech industry. 33. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Yanmo Omorogbe, Co-Founder of Invest Bamboo Peace interviews Yanmo Omorogbe, Co-founder of Invest Bamboo, on her "accidental" journey into entrepreneurship, running Bamboo and biggest wins and lessons. 34. #FoundersConnect with Tito Ovia, Cofounder of Helium Health (#1 Health-Tech Provider in Africa) Peace speaks with Tito Ovia, co-founder of Helium Health, a health-tech provider in Nigeria set to digitize hospital processes within the continent. 35. #FoundersConnect: Odun Eweniyi, Co-Founder of Piggyvest, Africa's Top Savings App Odun Eweniyi, coFounder of Piggyvest, FirstCheck Africa and the Feminist Coalition shares her journey with me. 36. #FoundersConnect: How Preston Ideh is building Africa's Largest Intelligence Startup, Stears. Interview with Preston Ideh, CEO and Co-founder of Stears. 37. #FoundersConnect (Music): Rebecca Inyang Junaid Founder of JustJoJo (Music Publishing) A conversation with Rebecca Inyang Junaid, Founder of JustJojo Entertainment, a music agency based in the UK on career, life and experiences. 38. #FoundersConnect: Chimezie Emewulu, Co-Founder and MD of Seamfix Limited. Conversation with an OG Founder, Chimezie Emewulu, Co-founder and CEO of Seamfix. 39. FoundersConnect: Interview with Kelvin Umechukwu, CEO and co-Founder of Bumpa Kelvin Umechukwu, CEO of Bumpa,  shares his journey into entrepreneurship and the role of community in effecting change. 40. How Kuda Bank Grew From Zero to Millions of Users Peace interviews Bradley Want, the VP  of Growth at Kuda Bank. 41. #FoundersConnect: Interview with Michael 'Trojan' Okoh - Co-founder and CTO, ThePeer 22-year old Founder of ThePeer, Michael Trojan Okoh, shares his story with me. 42. #FoundersConnect: Mariam Jimoh, CEO & Founder of Oja (Ethnic Grocery Delivery Startup) Peace speaks with Mariam about her grocery startup for afrocarribean people living in the diaspora. 43. #FoundersConnect with Ben Eluan, Co-Founder/ CEO of Flux Peace interviews Ben Eluan, co-founder and CEO of Flux, a crypto remittance startup built to help individuals and merchants make transactions globally. 44. #FoundersConnect: How Erika Brodnock, Founder of Kami, Uses Tech to Improve the Lives of Families Peace speaks with Erika Brodnock, Founder of Kami app. 45. #FoundersConnect: Ameyaw Debrah, the Founder of Ameyawdebrah.com | Ghanaian Celebrity Blogger Peace has a conversation with Ameyaw Debrah, Ghanaian celebrity blogger and founder of Ameyawdebrah.com, a lifestyle news blog about media, his life, and more. 46. #FoundersConnect: Abdul Hassan, CEO & Founder of Mono, Backed by Ycombinator #FoundersConnect: Abdul Hassan, CEO & Founder of Mono, Backed by Ycombinator 47. #FoundersConnect - Interview with Rodney Jackson-Cole, Cofounder and CTO at Prospa (YC W21) Rodney Jackson-Cole is the CTO of Prospa, a company set out to aid African entrepreneurs. Peace finds out more about his mission and journey in this episode. 48. #FoundersConnect: Tosin Faniro-Dada, MD /CEO of Endeavor (Nigeria) Peace has a conversation with Tosin Faniro-Dada, the MD & CEO of Endeavor in Nigeria, about her career and her passion for helping entrepreneurs. 49. #FoundersConnect: Moe Odele - Tech Lawyer, Human Rights Advocate & Travel Enthusiast Peace speaks to Moe "Moechievous" Odele, about her life and career, growing up in a polygamous family, studying law and finding tech law. 50. Yele Bademosi, Founder of Bundle Africa, Talks About Tech Entrepreneurship Peace speaks with Yele Bademosi, founder of Bundle Africa, Microtraction and co-Founder of Nestcoin, in a lengthy and elucidating interview. 51. #FoundersConnect: Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph, CEO of Kippa, a Company Helping Small businesses Grow. I have a conversation with Kippa's CEO & Co-Founder, Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph. 52. #FoundersConnect: Adia Sowho, CMO of MTN Nigeria Peace speaks with Adia Sowho, CMO of MTN Nigeria, on her life and journey. This interview is one you definitely should not miss! 53. #FoundersConnect: Ben Lyon, CEO and CoFounder of Stax, an Offline Payment App for Africans Conversation with Ben Lyon of Hover Developer Services, the parent company of Stax, a simple way to carry out payment services without internet or USSD codes. 54. The Founder & CEO of Kudigo Talks About Tech Startups in Ghana Peace interviews Kingsley Abrokwah, serial entrepreneur and founder of Kudigo, a software solution for retail businesses in Africa. 55. #FoundersConnect: How Kemi Olawoye Is Building BabyMigo, Nigeria's Largest Parenting Community Kemi shares her journey building Babymigo, Nigeria's largest Parenting Community 56. #FoundersConnect: Babajide Duroshola, General Manager at M-KOPA & ex-Country Director, SafeBoda (NG) I speak with Babajide Duroshola, the General Manager at M-Kopa with years of experience managing startups about his journey and work. 57. #FoundersConnect: Tomiwa Aladekomo, The Man behind Big Cabal Media (Techcabal & Zikoko) Peace speaks with Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO of BigCabal, the parent company of Zikoko, a media company that creates content for African youth, and TechCabal. 58. Interview with the Founder of Money Africa: Financial Education, Investing, and More Peace interviews Oluwatosin Olaseinde, founder of Money Africa and Ladda on her journey as a startup founder, biggest life lessons and future plans. 59. #FoundersConnect: Godwin Tom, Serial Entrepreneur, Music Business Mogul & CEO of iMANAGE AFRICA Conversation with Godwin Tom, an expert in music management and CEO of iMANAGE Africa on his journey, his work, and the future. 60. #FoundersConnect - Ized Uanikhehi, CEO of Loose Media, and Her Advice for Tech Marketers Peace interviews Ized Uanikhehi, Media professional and CEO of Loose Media on her journey, experiences and advice. 61. #FoundersConnect: Bunmi Akinyemiju, Partner at GreenHouse Capital, Former CEO Venture Garden Group I speak with Bunmi Akinyemiju, one of the biggest investors in the African startup space, and Founding Partner at GreenHouse Capital. 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