Jake Gibson is the co-founder of NerdWallet & Founding Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, a $75mil venture fund, investing in the future of Fintech alongside Sheel Mohnot.
He's been involved in fintech for over a decade. Prior to NerdWallet, he studied math and quantitative finance at MIT and traded interest rate derivatives at JPMorgan.
Let us know what you think on Twitter: @bzaidi) & @iamjakestream)
Full video with timestamps on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s-Tcuootl7s)
In this conversation we discuss:
- NerdWallet's business model + growing to a $500mil+ valuation
- the transition from founder to investor + the 80/20 of investing
- mental models to figure out your next step
- why "everything is fintech" + examples of this thesis
- DeFi, NFTs, stock market highs & ideas from a global fintech market
Timestamps:
- 00:00:00 Preview
- 00:02:20 Intro To Jake + Nerdwallet
- 00:06:57 Nerdwallet Deep Dive + $500mil Valuation
- 00:15:02 Opportunity: Nerdwallet Model In Other Verticals
- 00:18:40 Audience First Business in 2021
- 00:22:24 Trend: Audience Business Selling To Software Companies
- 00:26:09 Founder To Investor
- 00:31:12 Mental Model For Thinking About Next Step
- 00:35:29 "I want to be rich" - more context
- 00:39:48 Finding Motivation In Struggles
- 00:42:43 Role of Luck, Golden Handcuffs + Lifestyle Creep
- 00:48:51 80/20 of investing
- 00:51:31 "Everything Is Fintech" - Raising A $75mil Fund
- 00:56:04 Starting A Neo Bank
- 00:57:48 Fintech Opportunity In Ridesharing, Tesla & Airbnb
- 01:02:37 Facebook + Whatsapp Payments
- 01:03:06 Asia Market + WeChat Model
- 01:05:24 Problem vs Product…Verb vs Noun
- 01:10:54 Jake's Take on DeFi
- 01:16:40 NFTs + NBA Top Shots
- 01:20:59 Tesla's Balance Sheet
- 01:23:00 Elon + Chamath: Meme Masters
- 01:23:19 Global Market Ideas
- 01:29:09 Why Do We Have Stock Market Highs?
- 01:31:54 Investing Advice To A 25yr Old