Episode description

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