Those familiar with fintech know that Rex Salisbury is a major investor from Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) who founded his own company, Cambrian, to make early-stage investments. He also publishes a lot of great content, including a short video interview with his former a16z colleague Alex Rampell.
Beyond Alex’s high-profile VC work, he’s working with Affirm, a leader in buy now, pay later, and a mortgage finance startup that co-invests with homebuyers and owners rather than making traditional mortgages. Co-founded Point.
This video is not about Alex’s conquest. He talks about his biggest challenges, including how to deal with the conundrums most startup founders face. How do you grow without raising money, how do you raise cash without growing, and so on.
He also mentions what happens when you hit a roadblock and your primary talent no longer thinks your startup is where it should be.
Good stuff from Rex and Alex worth 12 minutes, linked below.
Also, here are three other related links:
(1) What Rex is going to do in the Cambrian (here and here).
(2) Rex previously worked for a mortgage startup called Sindeo, so here’s my post-mortem after Sindeo’s failure. It works well as a lesson on how hard it is to be a founder, and a bonus George Clooney angle is included.
(3) Another archival piece that explains how Point approaches mortgages differently than traditional mortgages.
Please send us your questions and comments.
Here, we advise startup founders on the conundrum: “You can’t raise cash without growing, and you can’t grow without raising cash.” From VC heavyweights Alex Rampell and Rex Salisbury
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check it out:
– Video: a16z Partner Alex Rampell Solves the Startup Conundrum of Funding and Growth
