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Lex Sokolin

Finance is being pulled apart by the forces of frontier technology. From AI, to blockchain and DeFi, mixed reality, chatbots, neobanks, and roboadvisors — the industry will never be the same. Here is the blueprint for navigating the shift.

The Fintech Blueprint

Lex chats with Harish Natarajan - Practice Manager, Financial Inclusion and Infrastructure, Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation at the World Bank, and Carlos Brandt - The Senior Advisor for Pix at the Central Bank of Brazil. Together they discuss the remarkable success of Pix, Brazil's real-time payment system, which now sees over 6 billion transactions per month and is used by more than 90% of the adult population and 80% of companies. Lex explores how Pix was created by the Central Bank of Brazil with strong public-private collaboration, backed by regulatory authority and supported by a co-creation model with stakeholders. Key to its adoption were a low-cost centralized infrastructure, clear branding, mandatory participation by large banks, and a robust national communication strategy. Globally, Pix is seen as a leading example of fast payment system deployment, driven by the central bank acting as a neutral coordinator and scheme owner. Lex also examines the technical architecture, built in-house by a surprisingly small team of 55–65 people, and how scalable infrastructure and extensibility have enabled rapid growth and innovation.

 

NOTABLE DISCUSSION POINTS:

 

1. Pix achieved mass adoption through public-private co-creation and legal mandate:

Pix now processes over 6 billion transactions per month, with 90% of Brazil’s adult population and 80% of businesses actively using it. Its success stems from a strategic legal mandate in 2013 granting the Central Bank regulatory and operational authority over retail payments. The Central Bank then led a co-creation process involving both public and private stakeholders through the Pix Forum, fostering alignment, inclusivity, and strong network effects.

2. A lean but powerful team built a nation-scale real-time payments system:

The Pix infrastructure was built entirely in-house by a relatively small team, 30-40 people for the technical infrastructure layer and around 25 for the payment scheme layer. It operates 24/7 with real-time settlement and uses centralized infrastructure separate from Brazil’s traditional large-value payment rails. This centralized, purpose-built architecture dramatically lowered costs and enabled rapid rollout.

3. Strategic communication and mandated participation drove adoption at scale:

The Central Bank led a national communication campaign to build trust, establish a strong brand identity, and educate the public. Simultaneously, it mandated major banks (with over 500,000 active accounts) to join Pix, triggering widespread voluntary adoption from smaller PSPs. The rollout included a restricted pilot phase and emphasized user-friendly features like QR codes and aliases to boost convenience and usage from day one.

 

TOPICS

 

Pix, Central Bank of Brazil, World Bank, Visa, Citibank, M-Pesa, Alipay, SPI, fintech, payments, PSP, API, Fast Payments, Payments Infrastructure, PayTech

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’19: Building Pix from the Ground Up: Carlos Brandt on Modernizing Brazil’s Payment Infrastructure

 

3’03: Fast Payments for Financial Inclusion: Harish Natarajan on the World Bank’s Role in Modern Payment Infrastructure

 

4’29: From Cash to 5 Billion Transactions a Month: How Pix Transformed Brazil’s Payment Ecosystem Through Public-Private Collaboration

 

10’41: Why Pix Succeeded Where Others Struggled: The Power of Neutral Coordination and Public-Private Synergy

 

12’40: Inside the Pix Forum: How Brazil Built a Collaborative Process for Payment Innovation

 

15’07: Fast Payments at Scale: Market Coordination, Infrastructure, and Global Lessons from Pix

 

20’55: Engineering Pix: How a Small Team Built Brazil’s 24/7 National Payments Infrastructure from Scratch

 

27’28: Driving Nationwide Adoption: How Strategic Communication and Mandates Powered Pix’s Rollout Across Brazil

 

34’14: Scaling for Success: Why Communication, Extensibility, and API Design Are Key to Evolving Payment Systems

 

37’23: Building Trust Through Cooperation: How Regulators Can Foster Innovation While Balancing Public and Private Interests

 

40’06: The channels used to connect with Carlos & learn more about The Central Bank of Brazil.

 

40’39: The channels used to connect with Harish & learn more about The World Bank

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

How the Central Bank of Brazil built Pix, powering 6 billion monthly transactions

Lex speaks with Ali Niknam, CEO and founder of Bunq, a leading European neobank. Ali shares Bunq’s journey from its founding during the financial crisis to becoming Europe’s second-largest neobank. The conversation explores Bunq’s user-centric philosophy, innovative products, and unique organizational design. Ali discusses overcoming regulatory challenges, prioritizing cultural values, and fostering accountability within teams. The episode also examines the complexities of the European fintech landscape and Bunq’s mission to revolutionize banking by focusing on user needs and continuous improvement.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Bunq, ING, Revolut, Betterment, Synapse, TransIP, Fintech, banking, crypto, neobank, challenger bank, culture, Europe, VC

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’09: Bunq’s Bold Mission: Ali Niknam on Reinventing Banking for the Modern User

 

6’27: Building from the Core: Why Bunq Chose the Hard Road to Reinvent Banking

 

10’08: Bootstrapped Banking: Building Bunq Without External Capital or Compromise

 

13’56: Launching the Future: Bringing Innovation to Market with Bunq’s First 45-Person Team

 

17’35: From Payments to Personalization: How Users Drove a Decade of Product Innovation

 

19’52: Designing for Eva: How Bunq Rebuilt Its Organization Around the User, Not the Org Chart

 

22’02: Beyond Titles: How Bunq’s Ownership-Driven Culture Redefines Teams, KPIs, and Hierarchy

 

28’14: Culture Over Compensation: How Bunq Attracts Mission-Aligned Talent Without Relying on Equity

 

35’06: Europe’s Tech Paradox: Why Innovation Thrives Despite Fragmentation—and What Must Change

 

39’11: The channels used to connect with Ali & learn more about Bunq

 

43’07: The channels used to connect with Edward & learn more about Zerohash 

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Building the €8 Billion neobank, with Bunq CEO Ali Niknam

Lex chats with Edward Woodford - CEO of Zerohash. They discuss Zerohash’s growth, the rise of stablecoins, and the evolving fintech landscape. Edward explains how stablecoins now make up half of Zerohash’s volume, highlights regulatory shifts in the U.S. and abroad, and explores the distinction between crypto and stablecoins. The conversation covers usability challenges, emerging payment use cases, and the future of embedded finance, emphasizing the need for regulatory clarity and collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial institutions.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

1. Stablecoins Overtake Crypto in Volume: Stablecoins now make up over 50% of Zerohash’s volume, driven by regulatory clarity and real-world use cases like payments and treasury. Institutions prefer them for their centralized control and ease of integration.

2. Brokerage and Payments Are Converging: Zerohash sees strong demand across brokerage and payment rails, with banks and fintechs embedding stablecoin infrastructure. Global payouts, account funding, and subscriptions are key growth areas despite UX friction.

3. Regulatory Climate Is Rapidly Improving: U.S. policy has shifted from regulatory overreach to bipartisan support for stablecoin legislation. This change is unlocking institutional adoption, with banks now moving aggressively into crypto and digital assets.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Zerohash, MoonPay, Transak, Ramp, Stripe, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Hamilton Lane, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, SoFi, Uniswap, fintech, web3, digital assets, blockchain, tokenization, rwas, stablecoin, crypto, regulation

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’51: From Crisis to Convergence: Edward Woodford on Scaling Zerohash and the Future of Embedded Crypto Infrastructure

 

5’06: Scaling the Pie, Not Stealing Slices: Rethinking Volume, Margins, and Meaningful Growth in Digital Asset Infrastructure

 

10’02: The Great Rebrand: How Stablecoins Are Shedding the 'Crypto' Label and Reshaping Digital Finance

 

15’22: From Overreach to Opportunity: How Regulatory Pushback in the U.S. Sparked a Global Shift Toward Stablecoin Adoption

 

20’31: The Semantics of Trust: Why ‘Stablecoin’ Sells and ‘Crypto’ Scares - and Why the Framing Now Matters More Than Ever

 

22’36: Unlocking Real Utility: Why Stablecoin Payments Are Finally Poised to Scale Across Commerce and Subscriptions

 

30’50: Disrupting the Rails: How Stablecoins Are Reshaping the Power Dynamics of Global Payments

 

34’49: The New Brokerage Mandate: Why Every Platform Is Racing to Add Crypto - and What’s Unlocking the Shift

 

39’03: Rewiring Financial Infrastructure: How Stablecoins and Super Apps Are Forcing Banks to Rethink Risk and Relevance

 

43’07: The channels used to connect with Edward & learn more about Zerohash

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Growing to $45B in volume on Zerohash crypto infra, with CEO Edward Woodford

Lex chats with Yuval Rooz, CEO and co-founder of Digital Asset, about the company’s transformation from its early institutional blockchain experiments to launching the Canton Network - a purpose-built, privacy-enabled smart contract platform designed for financial markets. Rooz shares insights into why Digital Asset was inspired by Bitcoin’s financial principles rather than its technical assumptions, highlighting the importance of rethinking blockchain infrastructure rather than replicating flawed legacy models. He also unpacks the hard lessons from high-stakes projects like the Australian Stock Exchange overhaul, emphasizing why large-scale financial infrastructure must evolve incrementally to succeed. Finally, the conversation dives into Canton’s unique tokenomics, where 70% of block rewards go to the developers and users who create economic activity on the network, challenging traditional validator-centric models and aligning incentives more fairly for long-term ecosystem growth.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

1. Canton’s innovative tokenomics: Unlike Ethereum, where validators capture most of the rewards, Canton allocates 70% of block rewards to developers and applications, creating sustainable alignment.

 

2. Lessons from ASX: Rooz reflects on the failed ASX blockchain migration, advocating for iterative upgrades rather than “big bang” infrastructure transformations.

 

3. True tokenization: Rooz critiques superficial on-chain IOU models, asserting that real tokenization must place the asset’s books and records natively on-chain to unlock the benefits of DeFi and composability.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Digital Asset, Canton Network, DRW, ASX, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Plaid, DAML, fintech, web3, tokenization, digital assets, financial infrastructure, DeFi, onchain

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’28: From Wall Street to Web3: Yuval Rooz on Founding Digital Asset and the Birth of the Canton Network

 

4’29: Rethinking Blockchain: Rejecting Ethereum’s Assumptions to Build a Better Financial Infrastructure

 

8’18: Getting Banks to Say Yes: Bridging Blockchain Innovation with Regulatory Reality

 

12’43: Blockchain at Scale: Lessons from the ASX Project and Why Incremental Innovation Beats Big Bang Deployments

 

21’27: Agile by Design: How Canton Aims to Bring Continuous Delivery to Decentralized Blockchain Networks

 

23’50: Beyond the Hype: Why Crypto Needs Pragmatism, Not Just Vision, to Integrate with Financial Institutions

 

27’08: From DAML to Canton: Building Scalable, Privacy-First Infrastructure for Real-World Finance

 

30’52: Redefining Tokenization: Real On-Chain Finance at Scale with Trillions in Assets on Canton

 

35’34: Solving the Tokenization Gap: Bridging Legacy Infrastructure with Decentralized Architecture

 

39’13: Seeding Web3 with Real Assets: Canton’s Strategy to Power DeFi with Institutional-Grade Infrastructure

 

41’33: Custom Rules, Shared Rails: How Canton Balances Decentralization with Regulatory Flexibility

 

44’30: Aligning Incentives: How Canton’s Tokenomics and Fair Launch Redefine Value Creation on Chain

 

49’35: The channels used to connect with Yuval & learn more about Digital Asset and Canton Network

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Tokenizing $3.6T of real world assets on Canton Network, with CEO Yuval Rooz

Lex chats with Stani Kulechov - founder and CEO of Aave, a leading decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. They explore the evolution of DeFi, Aave’s growth, and its architectural shift from a peer-to-peer model to pooled liquidity. Stani reflects on the early days of DeFi, the impact of the FTX collapse, and the increasing adoption of DeFi over centralized exchanges. They discuss Aave’s strategies for attracting assets, the importance of capital efficiency, and future innovations, including the tokenization of real-world assets and the role of stablecoins.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

1. Aave Reaches $40 Billion in Net Deposits: Stani Kulechov shared that Aave has achieved a record-breaking $40 billion in net deposits and $25 billion in active liquidity, making it the largest DeFi lending protocol ever by total value locked (TVL).

 

2. DeFi’s Evolution from Peer-to-Peer to Liquidity Hubs: The conversation detailed Aave’s architectural shift from early peer-to-peer lending models to pooled liquidity and now to a hub-and-spoke model with Aave V4 — designed to balance capital efficiency and risk segregation for both native crypto and real-world assets (RWAs).

 

3. The Rise of Real-World Assets and Stablecoins in DeFi: Kulechov emphasized that tokenized real-world assets (like treasuries) and decentralized stablecoins (such as Aave's GHO) are reshaping the DeFi landscape, predicting RWAs will outgrow both stablecoins and native crypto assets in total value locked within five years.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Aave, Lens Protocol, GHO, Horizon, FTX, Project Guardian, AaveDAO, MakerDAO, Web3, DeFi, Lending, stablecoins, tokens, RWA, decentralized finance, capital markets, DAO, Digital Assets

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’11: DeFi at $40B: How a Lending Protocol Redefined Blockchain Finance

 

9’06: From Peer-to-Peer to Liquidity Hubs: Evolving the Architecture of DeFi Lending

 

15’01: DeFi's Growth Curve: From Airdrops to Institutional Adoption After FTX

 

20’49: Scaling Safely: How a Lending Protocol Outpaced Rivals Through Capital Efficiency and Brand Trust

 

24’34: Beyond Infrastructure: Why Token Issuers Need Capital Markets, Not Just DeFi Hype

 

28’33: Building Beyond Lending: How a Stablecoin and Institutional Arm Power DeFi Profitability

 

31’33: From JPMorgan to BlackRock: How Horizon Bridges Institutions to On-Chain Finance

 

35’18: Tokenized Treasuries and the Future of DeFi: Why RWAs Will Eclipse Stablecoins by 2030

 

39’36: From Fragmentation to Focus: Why DeFi’s Future Depends on Application Layers, Not More Chains

 

41’47: The channels used to connect with Stani & learn more about Aave and Avara

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Forty Billion Reasons to Trust the Future of DeFi, with Aave Founder Stani Kulechov

Lex chats with Avlok Kohli - the CEO of AngelList, about the company's significant evolution. Initially a platform for startups to connect with venture capitalists, AngelList has transformed into a comprehensive fintech entity encompassing private equity and cryptocurrency. Avlok discusses the strategic pivots, including the introduction of syndicates and rolling funds, that have redefined the company's business model. The episode also explores the broader implications of crowdfunding and the unique challenges in the crypto space, offering a deep dive into AngelList's impact on the financial services industry.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

1. AngelList’s Second Founding: Reinvention as a Fintech Platform: Since 2019, AngelList has transformed from a mixed-use startup platform into a focused fintech infrastructure business for fund managers. Avlok Kohli spun out the syndicates arm and built a scalable product offering that includes SPVs, venture funds, and innovative structures like Rolling Funds and Roll Up Vehicles. This pivot catalyzed explosive growth—from ~$1B in AUM in 2019 to $171B+ today—by enabling fund creation and deployment at scale.

 

2. Product Innovation as a Strategic Advantage: Instead of competing with well-capitalized incumbents like Carta on sales and marketing, AngelList focused on building category-defining products. The launch of Rolling Funds—allowing fund managers to raise publicly and continuously—was a breakout moment. It created viral word-of-mouth growth and redefined how emerging fund managers could access capital, illustrating the principle: “You can’t win by playing someone else’s game.”

 

3. AI and the Future of Private Markets Infrastructure: AngelList is embedding AI across three strategic layers: (1) Back-office automation, replacing manual workflows, (2) Customer service enhancement, enabling agents to respond to LPs with real-time data, and (3) Data reasoning products, like Fin, which analyzes anonymized fund and secondary data to deliver actionable private market insightsThis positions AngelList not only as an admin platform but as a data intelligence layer over the private capital markets.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Fintech, Web3, Venture, VC, Venture capital, private markets, fundraising, crowdfunding, crypto, web3, AI, Angellist, Coinlist, Carta, Gumroad

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’09: AngelList Reimagined: How Avlok Kohli Transformed a Startup Directory into a Fintech Powerhouse

 

6’43: Syndicates vs. Crowdfunding: Solving the Signal Problem in Startup Investing

 

11’43: From Community to Capital: Rebuilding AngelList Through Business Model Reinvention and Rolling Fund Innovation

 

16’49: Playing a Different Game: How AngelList Scaled by Redefining the Category Through Product Innovation

 

21’59: Creating the Category: How Rolling Funds Sparked a Movement and Redefined Venture Fundraising

 

28’51: From $1 Billion to $125 Billion: How AngelList Scaled by Saying No Before Saying Yes

 

32’56: The Liquidity Mirage: Why Private Market Access Remains Elusive for Most Investors

 

37’57: AI Meets Private Markets: Automating Back Offices, Enhancing Customer Touchpoints, and Powering Intelligent Fund Infrastructure

 

42’26: The channels used to connect with Avlok & learn more about Angellist

 

 

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Inside the Platform Powering +$171B in Private Capital, with AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli

Lex chats with Jamie Burke - founder of Outlier Ventures, about the current state and future of Web3, decentralized finance, and the metaverse. Jamie highlights Outlier Ventures' impressive growth, with a portfolio of around 400 startups, and discusses successful projects like IOTA and Fetch.ai. The conversation delves into the open metaverse, emphasizing the importance of infrastructure and middleware in blending physical and digital realities. Jamie also explores the transformative role of AI in the metaverse and offers practical advice for entrepreneurs navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

1.The “Post-Web” Is an Intent-Led Internet: Jamie Burke outlines a shift from today’s attention-based web to an intent-driven internet, powered by AI agents, Web3 infrastructure, and DePIN. In this model, agents act on user intent, radically streamlining interactions and replacing much of today’s web interface.

 

2. Web3 Will Be Run by Machines, Not People: Burke predicts that autonomous agents—not humans—will become the primary users of blockchains, making crypto “machine money.” As a result, products, brands, and processes matter less, while incentive systems and on-chain automation take center stage.

 

3. Founders Must Embrace Systems Thinking: In the Post-Web era, survival depends on designing self-optimizing systems, not just building products. Burke stresses that token engineering, incentive design, and value flow mapping will define the next generation of durable startups.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Web3, decentralized finance, metaverse, Open metaverse, Post web, Outlier Ventures, IOTA, Fetch.ai, accelerator program, AI, artificial intelligence, Agentic AI, agents, Web3, post-web, digital economy, blockchain technology

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’18: Outlier Ventures in 2025: From IOTA to Fetch.ai, Backing the Infrastructure Behind Intelligent Web3

 

10’24: The Open Metaverse Revisited: Outlier’s Long-Game Bet on Augmented Reality, Middleware, and AI-Driven Agents

 

26’01: FThe Post-Web Era: How AI Agents, Web3 Infrastructure, and Delegation Will Redefine the Internet

 

35’57: From Attention to Intention: How AI Agents and Web3 Are Flipping the Internet on Its Head

 

49’39: Surviving the Post-Web Paradigm: Why Founders Must Shift from Startup Thinking to Systems Design

 

57’49: The channels used to connect with Jamie & learn more about Outlier Ventures

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

400 Startups Building the Post-Web Economy, with Outlier Ventures Founder Jamie Burke

Lex interviews Josh Reeves, co-founder of Gusto, a company specializing in payroll, HR, and benefits solutions for small businesses. Josh shares his journey from academia to entrepreneurship, highlighting the challenges and strategies involved in building Gusto. The discussion covers the evolution of technology from Web 2.0, the importance of understanding customer needs, and maintaining strong unit economics. Josh emphasizes Gusto's mission to simplify payroll and HR tasks for small businesses, aiming to improve their survival rates and overall efficiency. The episode underscores the significance of product quality and customer satisfaction in navigating industry competition.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

1. Solving Payroll as a Massive, Underserved SMB Pain Point: Reeves highlighted how in 2011, 40% of small businesses were fined annually due to manual payroll errors. Gusto addressed this pain using cloud and mobile tech, making payroll fast, accurate, and accessible—especially for non-experts.

 

2. Product Sequencing and the Power of a Payroll-Centric Ecosystem: Starting with payroll, Gusto built a sticky, horizontal product with strong retention. From there, they expanded into benefits, time tracking, and more—adding products based on customer pull and reinforcing their ecosystem.

 

3. Organizational Evolution: From Founder-Led to Functional and Matrixed: Gusto grew from 3 co-founders to 2,600+ employees by evolving from a hands-on team to a matrix structure. Reeves emphasized hiring leaders suited to each stage and giving small, focused teams autonomy to drive new product development.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Fintech, Gusto, Payroll, HR, Zazzle, SMB, CAC, Customer, Scaling, Growth, Web2.0

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’13: From PhD Dropouts to Payroll Pioneers: Joshua Reeves on Building Gusto and Solving Real Problems with Technology

 

4’21: The Web2 Reawakening: Democratizing Creation and Commerce Through the Internet

 

8’14: From Pen and Paper to the Cloud: Tackling Payroll Pain and Modernizing SMB Operations

 

11’15: Is Gusto a Fintech?: Ignoring Labels, Solving Problems, and Building for Small Business from Day One

 

16’07: Cracking the SMB Code: Building Scalable Products with Strong Unit Economics and Organic Growth

 

19’39: The Fundamentals of Scaling: Navigating CAC, LTV, and Retention in Subscription Businesses

 

22’49: Building Beyond Payroll: How Customer Demand and Smart Sequencing Shaped a Scalable Product Organization

 

27’16: Scaling with Intention: Evolving Leadership, Structure, and Talent from 10 to 2,600 People

 

33’00: Structuring for Scale: Balancing Autonomy, Focus, and Flexibility in a Multi-Product Organization

 

36’22: From Traction to Tenure: Scaling Impact, Navigating Competition, and Building for the Next Decade

 

41’12: The channels used to connect with Joshua & learn more about Gusto

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

The $500MM Startup Making Payroll Painless, with Gusto Co-Founder Joshua Reeves

Lex interviews David Snider - founder and CEO of Harness Wealth. David shares his extensive fintech journey, including his pivotal role at Compass, a real estate technology firm. He discusses the challenges of aligning agents with new technology and the evolution of Compass's business model to empower agents with better tools and incentives. Transitioning to Harness Wealth, David explains his vision to enhance tax advisory services through a modern platform, addressing complex financial needs. The episode underscores the importance of innovation and human expertise in fintech and real estate.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

Empowering Advisors in Complex Industries: David Snider has built platforms that enhance human advisors rather than replace them—first in real estate with Compass - a technology-powered real estate brokerage, now in tax with Harness Wealth. In industries with high complexity and large transaction sizes, like wealth management and real estate, human expertise remains essential. His approach emphasizes that technology should enable, not displace, trusted advisors.

 

Compass Pivoted to Power Top Agents: Compass began with a plan to disrupt real estate agents but pivoted to support top performers with better tech and economics. This shift—paired with smart execution—enabled rapid growth and market leadership by focusing on high-value agents and transactions, rather than cutting them out of the process.

 

Harness Wealth Modernizes Complex Tax Advisory: Harness Wealth applies a Compass-like model to tax, serving clients with equity comp, crypto, and private investments by connecting them to top advisors through a modern, tech-enabled experience. The platform improves both advisor workflows and client usability, targeting a large, underserved market that DIY tools can’t effectively serve.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Fintech, Harness Wealth, Compass, AI, RealEstate, Platform-As-A-Service, Advisory, Data, Tax, WealthTech, TaxTech, CryptoTax, PersonalFinance, FinancialAdvisors

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’06: From Bain to Compass: David Snider on Navigating Finance, Real Estate, and the Rise of Advisor-Enabled Tech

 

5’42: Evolving Real Estate Through Tech: Market Levers, Rollups, and Building Compass's Super Agent Model

 

13’20: Digital vs. Human: Why Tech Wins in Some Industries—and Advisors Thrive in Others

 

17’16: Scaling Compass: How Tech, Economics, and a New Go-to-Market Strategy Fuelled Rapid Agent Growth

 

22’20: Overcoming Resistance: The Grind Behind Compass’s Data Integration and Agent Tech Adoption

 

26’13: From Compass to Harness: Building a Tech-Driven Platform to Simplify Complex Tax and Financial Advice

 

31’05: Serving the Underserved: How Harness Wealth Empowers Advisors and Clients Navigating Complex Tax Needs

 

34’16: Building Smarter Tax Tech: Harness’s Curated Approach to Streamlined Data, Insights, and Advisor Collaboration

 

36’02: Scaling with Purpose: Harnessing Data, Advisor Value, and a Massive Market Opportunity in Tax

 

37’46: The channels used to connect with David & learn more about Harness Wealth

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Reinventing Traditional Services through Modern Platforms, with David Snider CEO of Harness Wealth

Lex interviews Scott Woody, CEO and founder of Metronome, a usage-based billing platform. Scott shares his journey from academia to entrepreneurship, detailing his experiences at UC Berkeley, D.E. Shaw, and Stanford, where he studied biophysics. His tenure at Dropbox, where he tackled billing system challenges, inspired the creation of Metronome. The discussion highlights Metronome's real-time billing data capabilities, which aim to improve business efficiency and customer experience. Scott also explores the broader implications of AI in fintech, emphasizing the shift towards usage-based business models and the importance of real-time data.

 

Notable discussion points:

 

Metronome emerged from firsthand frustrations at Dropbox, where Scott Woody experienced how rigid billing systems slowed growth, confused customers, and blocked real-time insights. He built Metronome as a flexible, real-time billing engine that merges usage data with pricing logic—powering the monetization infrastructure for top AI companies today.

 

Real-time billing isn’t just about invoices—it's a strategic revenue lever. For AI and SaaS businesses alike, Metronome enables teams to run dynamic experiments, optimize GPU allocation, and make last-minute decisions to hit quarterly targets—turning billing into a core growth engine.

 

The rise of AI is accelerating a shift to usage-based models. As AI becomes specialized labor across verticals (from loan collection to customer service), companies are rapidly replatforming, and entire industries may flip from seat-based to outcome-based pricing within quarters—Metronome is positioned as the "payment processor" for this AI economy.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Topics: Metronome, Dropbox, Datadog, OpenAI, AI, AGI, machine learning, pricing models, financial services, business optimization, operational frameworks, analytics, financial modeling

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

1’05: Talent Spotting and Swag Strategy: How Scott Woody Recruited the Brightest Minds at Berkeley

 

7’27: From Biophysics to Startups: How Stanford and Protein Folding Led Scott into Tech

 

9’28: Lessons from Dropbox: Why Talent Density Beats Perks in Building Scalable Tech Teams

 

14’09: Solving the Billing Bottleneck: How Metronome Powers Real-Time Monetization for Modern Tech

 

19’45: Real-Time Revenue Intelligence: How Metronome Helps Teams Optimize Pricing, Experiments, and GPU Allocation

 

24’55: Optimizing AI Economics: Metronome’s Real-Time Matching of Model Usage, Customer Spend, and GPU Allocation

 

29’03: The Rise of Usage-Based AI: Why Real-Time Monetization Is Reshaping Business Models Across Tech

 

34’25: Specialized AI as Labor: Why Purpose-Built Agents Are Shaping the Future of Work and Software Integration

 

40’46: The Tipping Point for AI Adoption: Why Clear ROI and Competitive Pressure Are Rewriting Entire Industries

 

48’39: The channels used to connect with Scott & learn more about Metronome

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

How Metronome is Building the Revenue Engine for AI, with CEO Scott Woody

Lex Sokolin continues his Build It Series, focusing on the differences between B2C and B2B strategies, and on the implementations of some foundational marketing principles. He discusses branding and the two ways of doing it right. Then he dives into the various programs that can be implemented to generate demand, from content, to social media, to paid acquisition. Finally, he touches on the importance of CAC and LTV, in particular during a year like 2023.

 

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

 

Fintech Blueprint's Website: https://bit.ly/3IcO9eq

Fintech Blueprint's Archive: https://bit.ly/3XlSGiX

 

Topics: marketing, strategy, economics, fintech

 

Companies: Betterment, Mint, FutureAdvisor, LendingClub, Coinbase, Softbank

 

ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT

 

🔥Subscribe to the Fintech Blueprint newsletter to stay at the forefront of Fintech and DeFi: https://bit.ly/3hyhlC2

 

🤝 Partner with Fintech Blueprint through sponsorships: https://bit.ly/3UZllsV

 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LexSokolin

 

 

TIMESTAMPS

 

2’04”: Recap of first edition - looking at markets and figuring out the shape of demand

 

3’12”: Why B2C Fintechs are one of the brightest signals of the transformation of the distribution of financial products

 

10’03”: Brand - why Brand matters in Fintech more so than ever before

 

20’04”: Marketing Programs - Building brands vs. quantitative marketing funnels

 

28’04”: Cost of Customer Acquisition and Lifetime Value - Blitzscaling vs organic growth

 

27’45”: Automation of the CFO stack vs Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)

 

37’50”: Conclusion - closing remarks & overview

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

Want to discuss? Stop by our Discord and reach out here with questions.

Creating a B2C fintech marketing strategy

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