From Developer to Solo Entrepreneur to $5M+ Revenue: Sporcle Founder and CTO Matt Ramme (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What was the thesis of Sporcle?

Matt Ramme: I didn’t know. I had an idea to build a website. I didn’t know what it was going to be. I liked the creation of websites. If you’re familiar with the March Madness Bracket for collegiate basketball where millions of people do it every year. They try to predict all the way out to the end. I thought that was an interesting idea, but it would be cool if I could do it for other sports or other leagues. I built a product that allowed people to predict other sports.

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Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Grain CoFounder and COO Carl Memnon (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: I’m more curious about financial engineering. You have Y Combinator which takes certain equity and gives you a certain amount of cash. After YC, you said you raised a seed round. Then you raised seed extension. As what? Safes, convertible notes, equity financing?

Carl Memnon: We raised primarily on YC safes.

Sramana Mitra: $15 million on safe?

Carl Memnon: Yes.

From Developer to Solo Entrepreneur to $5M+ Revenue: Sporcle Founder and CTO Matt Ramme (Part 1)

Developers interested in bootstrapping ad-supported B-to-C startups would find this discussion valuable.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, and raised, and in what kind of background?

Matt Ramme: I grew up in western New York. I went to college at Carnegie Mellon and studied computer science. When I started, it was computer science and math. I wasn’t as much into math, so I was able to get a minor in German which I enjoyed.

Video FAQs

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Grain CoFounder and COO Carl Memnon (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: What is the business model?

Carl Memnon: The business model is simply on the backend. We split net interest income with our bank partner. They pay us a service fee which is a function of the net interest income that they get.

Sramana Mitra: How many bank partners do you have now?

Carl Memnon: We have two bank partners. We’re working with a number of other banks that we hope to onboard in the short term.

585th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Mohanjit Jolly, Iron Pillar

Mohanjit Jolly, Partner at Iron Pillar, and a long-time player in the Indian startup ecosystem discusses Exit options for Indian startups and other topics.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cameron Kramlich, General Partner of Angelneers (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: You would invest in somebody who has great talent and great domain knowledge if that person is proposing something in that domain where the problem is identified. Isn’t that a concept stage investment in a very talented person?

Cameron Kramlich: Sure, it would be. Looking at somebody who has a general area they want to work in and has enough neuroplasticity to realize that whatever is on the pitch deck is going to change 15 times. That’s why if it’s just a 10-slide, that’s great. It needs to be more than that. What we’re looking for is people that we can coach and help grow.

Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Grain Cofounder and COO Carl Memnon (Part 5)

Carl Memnon: We have people who have a credit history but have struggled in the past. From talking to users, we’ve discovered that that’s a function of healthcare cost. Hospitalizations, oftentimes, put people in debt. Another is past job loss. That individual now has great cash flow. That user is now looking to repair their credit.

In both circumstances, our users are using it the way they use their credit cards. The credit aspect is almost a byproduct. Users who have that issue come to us. Then the third is a very interesting segment which are people who have great cash flow, great credit scores, and have traditional credit cards.

Catching Up On Readings: Korea Blockchain Week

This feature from The New York Times covers the Korea Blockchain Week held last week with over 120 speakers and 7,000 registered attendees. For this week’s posts, click on the paragraph links.