#22: Are These Harvard Dropouts The Next Billionaire Siblings?

In #22, Michael Sikand (@michaelsikand) and Simran Sandhu (@_simmy_) talk about Rory and Kieran O'Reily, the sibling duo behind several massive internet projects and now co-founders of a new fintech backed by American Express. The brothers dropped out of Harvard and became Thiel Fellows to pursue the mania around GIFs by building a GIF creator website called Gifs.com. Despite being used by huge companies like Netflix, the brothers struggled to monetize it, and pivoted into crypto. Their Ethereum-based coin project was one of the most successful crypto communities until its value plummeted 99.9% in 2018, wiping out $80M in value. Now the brothers are focused on problems in traditional finance, primarily the pain of updating card information across disparate websites. Their new startup Knot API has raised $13M from investors like American Express and Plaid to help people seamlessly update payment information. 0:00 Intro 2:55 Gifs.com Story & Breakdown 08:52 Success and Failure in Crypto 16:32 New Fintech Startup: Knot API Check out their company: https://knotapi.com/ Follow the show on TikTok: @ourfuturepod Follow the show on IG: @ourfuturepod Message Michael on Twitter: @michaelsikand. Message Simmy on Twitter: @_simmy_ Our Future Podcast is a production of Morning Brew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices