Brendan Wood

I think it's that we're building something that's really hard. It's a two-sided market. You've got, well, it's even more than that. Like you've got stockbrokers or huge billion-dollar financial institutions on one side, and you've got scrappy startup apps and founders and entrepreneurs on the other side.

I think it's that we're building something that's really hard. It's a two-sided market. You've got, well, it's even more than that. Like you've got stockbrokers or huge billion-dollar financial institutions on one side, and you've got scrappy startup apps and founders and entrepreneurs on the other side.

And then you've got users who are customers of both the app and the broker, and then we have to facilitate the data access. There's a lot of moving pieces. Starting from like ground zero, like how do you even get started? It's a network effect driven thing where on day one, say we were pitching this API to apps and we had nothing built already. And we said, yeah, unified broker API.

And then you've got users who are customers of both the app and the broker, and then we have to facilitate the data access. There's a lot of moving pieces. Starting from like ground zero, like how do you even get started? It's a network effect driven thing where on day one, say we were pitching this API to apps and we had nothing built already. And we said, yeah, unified broker API.

And then you've got users who are customers of both the app and the broker, and then we have to facilitate the data access. There's a lot of moving pieces. Starting from like ground zero, like how do you even get started? It's a network effect driven thing where on day one, say we were pitching this API to apps and we had nothing built already. And we said, yeah, unified broker API.

And they'd say, what brokers do you support? And we say, none. It's not very useful, right? And it works the other way around as well. You go to a billion dollar financial institution. Listen, we're building a unified API to have an ecosystem of apps. And they say, what apps do you have? It's a chicken and egg problem. So getting over that is very difficult.

And they'd say, what brokers do you support? And we say, none. It's not very useful, right? And it works the other way around as well. You go to a billion dollar financial institution. Listen, we're building a unified API to have an ecosystem of apps. And they say, what apps do you have? It's a chicken and egg problem. So getting over that is very difficult.

And they'd say, what brokers do you support? And we say, none. It's not very useful, right? And it works the other way around as well. You go to a billion dollar financial institution. Listen, we're building a unified API to have an ecosystem of apps. And they say, what apps do you have? It's a chicken and egg problem. So getting over that is very difficult.

And we were able to do it because we had the passive app. So we effectively built customer number one and used that to justify the early integrations with a lot of these brokers and build relationships with them over a few years. And then once we had that, we went and just opened it up to a bunch of apps.

And we were able to do it because we had the passive app. So we effectively built customer number one and used that to justify the early integrations with a lot of these brokers and build relationships with them over a few years. And then once we had that, we went and just opened it up to a bunch of apps.

And we were able to do it because we had the passive app. So we effectively built customer number one and used that to justify the early integrations with a lot of these brokers and build relationships with them over a few years. And then once we had that, we went and just opened it up to a bunch of apps.

And once we started getting some big logos on the platform, then we go back to the brokers and we get even bigger names and so on, right? So laddering out of that bootstrapping problem is probably the hardest thing that we've done. And I'm super proud that we've been able to make it this far. I It feels like we're at a point where the network is fairly stable.

And once we started getting some big logos on the platform, then we go back to the brokers and we get even bigger names and so on, right? So laddering out of that bootstrapping problem is probably the hardest thing that we've done. And I'm super proud that we've been able to make it this far. I It feels like we're at a point where the network is fairly stable.

And once we started getting some big logos on the platform, then we go back to the brokers and we get even bigger names and so on, right? So laddering out of that bootstrapping problem is probably the hardest thing that we've done. And I'm super proud that we've been able to make it this far. I It feels like we're at a point where the network is fairly stable.

Both sides are moderately well satisfied in that sense. It's up really well for growth.

Both sides are moderately well satisfied in that sense. It's up really well for growth.

Both sides are moderately well satisfied in that sense. It's up really well for growth.

This probably goes back to the hiring. So we used to hire based on code tests. They weren't like the pithy, not like Google style CS problems or anything. We're going to throw something out of left field at you and just see how you figure it out. So that was the only way that we filtered previously. And we didn't have a strong filter for culture.

This probably goes back to the hiring. So we used to hire based on code tests. They weren't like the pithy, not like Google style CS problems or anything. We're going to throw something out of left field at you and just see how you figure it out. So that was the only way that we filtered previously. And we didn't have a strong filter for culture.

This probably goes back to the hiring. So we used to hire based on code tests. They weren't like the pithy, not like Google style CS problems or anything. We're going to throw something out of left field at you and just see how you figure it out. So that was the only way that we filtered previously. And we didn't have a strong filter for culture.