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episode
Funds and Founders: Untold Journeys Behind Their Breakthroughs
53 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 10 days ago
Transcript
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What sparked Chelsea’s entrepreneurial journey and early motivations?
I'm Chelsea Cooper, founder and CEO of Approvely. We are a stablecoin payments platform. We are purpose built for niche markets, largely online gaming. I didn't understand distribution. I didn't understand how to get more customers. It was a very good lesson and an expensive one for a 25-year-old. And well because I had time on my hands, I said, okay, I'll do it. So I did. If I don't have a co-founder, if I don't have a CTO, it's not gonna be a barrier for me to win. It was flawed logic. The idea was a good idea, but the problem was the the distribution channel. We launched at the beginning of the year. We signed ninety customers in ninety days. We did not expect that. You should be learning to generate revenue before you're like learning how to put a deck together.
Welcome back to Funds and Founders. We have Chelsea on today. And random fact, today I realized I've been spelling your name wrong and saying S E A everywhere. And then I was looking through your history on LinkedIn, I was like, I know it's S I E and Justin's also told me a couple of times, but just random. Um, I have this bit where I ask every guest to introduce themselves, tell people what they're working on, and just plug whatever you want to plug. Retention is like thirty, forty seconds nowadays, so I gotta plug you in the beginning. So even if they drop off, they at least know where to find you. So tell the audience who you you are what you're working on and where to find you.
Perfect. Yeah. Chelsea Cooper, founder and CEO of Approvely. And we are a stable coin payments platform. We are purpose built for niche markets, largely online gaming. And you can find me on LinkedIn. It's the easiest one I think.
Yeah, and we'll link everything for you. But Why don't you Tell us where did your entrepreneurial journey start? What would you say was that one defining moment where you're like, I know this is what I want to do and this is what I like doing?
So I've had I had the benefit of being raised in a home where my dad was an entrepreneur. So I always say that you know Obviously that comes with a different kind of set of upbringing, but I saw a parent build And I felt like that for me just changed the mystery about it. A lot of times I'd see him doing things and I'd be like, I can do that better than him. So I feel like getting that exposure early on was a a pretty big like reason why at my core I'm a I'm a builder, I'm a problem solver. So my dad was one of the VPs of Phi Serve in the early eighties. and single dad raising three girls and I really grew up around the dinner table like talking about this stuff. He was very obsessed with the work environment, what was going on.
He later started his own company. And I helped him right out of college. So I grew up around the business really. So that's my experience like early days. And in terms of like how did we get to where we are? It's kind of a long journey, but um I would say that every pivotal moment was always about a growth opportunity for me. So reflecting on like, is there an opportunity for me to push myself a bit more? So out of college I started helping him in the business. And then I realized like there was more opportunity for me to grow. So I went and got a a partner, had a couple offices and We were scaling a company and then from there I started approvely. So it's been kind of like a journey between a few different
experiences that led me to where I am now and Definitely challenges along the way at every stage. But I don't know that I would have ever done a different way, like I just felt like there was so much to do, so much to build and Being A problem solver was always what drove me to to create. You know, so if I would see a problem early on I would challenge that. And then I would say, Well, why does it have to be that way? Like is there another way to do it? And so very, very early on I was known because I started in the business learning the credit and risk side. I was the one that like got all the most complicated use cases. And I would solve for them. And so then that's all I spent my time doing was really complicated projects.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What sparked Chelsea’s entrepreneurial journey and early motivations?
0:00–5:33
2
Why did Chelsea realize distribution was more important than the product itself?
5:33–11:01
3
How did Approvely identify and validate the high‑risk gaming market?
11:01–17:20
4
What role did mentorship, networking, and industry partnerships play in building the business?
17:20–23:47
5
Why did Chelsea choose to stay bootstrapped and avoid VC funding?
23:47–29:17
6
How did Approvely scale its product and team without a technical co‑founder?
29:17–36:00
7
What lessons did Chelsea learn about focusing on revenue‑generating activities versus over‑planning?
36:00–42:20
8
What rapid‑fire advice does Chelsea have for founders about risk, focus, and work‑life balance?
42:20–52:53
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Funds and Founders: Untold Journeys Behind Their Breakthroughs
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