Paradigm Shift artwork

EP7: Finding Product-Market Fit with B2B products, with Paul Sawaya, founder Human Interest ($1b valuation)

Paradigm Shift

English - October 30, 2021 22:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MB - ★★★★★ - 1 rating
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Previous Episode: EP6: Jim Brusstar, founder Treasury Prime ($31.5m Series B), on being early to fintech, how banks work under the covers, building APIs to connect banks to fintechs, and why fintech has tons of headroom to grow
Next Episode: EP8: Shamir Karkal, founder Bank Simple (first neobank) and Sila, on how fintech has evolved over the last decade, what he's most excited about, and predictions for the next decade

Summary:

Conversation with Paul Sawaya, co-founder of Human Interest, $1b company that makes it easy for SMBs to provide 401k savings plans to their employees, and helps employees save for their retirement.

We cover so many interesting topics in this conversation across the Human Interest story, numerous lessons learnt, and technologies he's most excited about for the future.

Episode Highlights:

Early experiences like building an FB app at BloombergInterviewing with Emmett Shear to interview at Justin.TVHow big company vs tiny startup experience made him want to start a companySpending 2 years exploring problems and ideasChallenges and lessons from wandering the wildernessKey lesson: focussing on problems first before jumping into futuristic projectsGot excited about solving 401k access problems which led to Human InterestOnly 20% small companies offered 401ks due to setup, admin and cost challengesProduct innovation: automating operational work to lower cost structures and expand accessBuilding on top of back-office solutions to learn/move fast, then moving in-houseHow they moved fast to get early customers for feedback and validating demandHow to spend time during exploration/sabbatical: establish a routine and talk to lots of peopleApproaching GTM through an effective partnership and integration strategyCleaning up some shady 401k practices by offering better, sustainable solutionsTransitioning out of day to day Human Interest work to spend time with early stage startupsExploring new ideas for his new project and things he's excited aboutExciting breakthroughs other people might be under-appreciating: Web Assembly to run high intensity server side compute locally in the browser, and AI to reimagine user interfacesPrototyping to explore and learn new thingsAbility to enter ambiguous, messy situations and find a path forwardPeople who gave him an early break that he is grateful forPower of developing personal values as a guiding light


Links:

Read more about Human Interest: https://humaninterest.com/Follow Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automin


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