Aditi Shekar
@aditishekar
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Founder @askzeta . Ex @guildeducation @ga @ashoka @honesttea @donorschoose . Obsessed with dogs, finance & sugar. Now officially a bankster.
Washington DC
Joined July 2011
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I just tried to order Indian food in Bethesda and this is hilarious:
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My dad passed away a few weeks ago after getting COVID. The Indian gov't refused to classify his death as covid bc it meant paying out a small insurance claim. I am so saddened by how badly the gov't has handled every single thing about this situation. People deserve better.
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Wow
@BankofAmerica
just charged me $15 to RECEIVE a wire. The revolution is coming and crap like this won’t be tolerated.
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Ok damn, I am amazed at how easy it is to hire a diverse team if you’re actually trying
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Angel investing tip - you can very easily tell if an entrepreneur is going to be successful based on the quality of the investor updates they send. I'm considering changing my diligence process to just asking for the last 2-3 investor updates to make a decision.
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This morning I sat across a founder friend and cried. Not because anything in particular is wrong, but because some days this job is just very, very hard. ❤️🔥 to my fellow founders.
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@wynn_atwork
Ok this would have been very helpful! Also I love how Indian Mild is just blank
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I’m no shy petunia but damn, I don’t even come close to the confidence of a white guy in fintech
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@merci
What a massive embarrassment for them. They chose money over values, and that doesn’t speak to the kind of people you want to do business with.
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My dad is in a Delhi ICU and needs remdesivir. Because it’s not available we had no choice but to source it from the black market. The guy took payment & stopped responding. Prices have 4x in the last day. That said, we’re luckier than most.
This is a humanitarian crisis!
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There nothing more painful to watch than investors who make fun of startups that fail. It takes guts to build something and nothing to tear it down. Be more human. Show empathy. Be helpful even in a team’s lowest moments.
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This is a deeply irresponsible tweet. I’m embarrassed for you Hillary.
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I’m nervous about this tweet. But I promised myself to lean into vulnerability so here goes.
A year ago, I was openly trying to buy drugs on the black market to save my dad’s life. It didn’t work. As his death anniversary nears, I wrote this:
A personal essay on love & grief
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I spent the last month diving into "instant" ACH with four different players (Sardine, Astra, Orum and Plaid) and it's fascinating how much of fintech is being built as I type this message. So damn bullish on this space.
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The global fintech founder community only has 7% of women. That’s right, 7%!
Here are 5 ways to change that:
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As a founder, an employee and an investor, Carta under delivers on all three experiences for me.
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@kevinleeme
we have a monthly finance meeting (we call them money dates) where we talk about all the happenings in our joint and shared financial lives - it's been magical for us to stay on the same page & be open/honest about $$
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For the love of god, stop saying "let me know how I can help". I get it, it's an easy thing to say, I've done it myself, but it puts work on the founder with no clarity on ROI. If you're compelled by a founder's vision here are ways to help (feel free to suggest more):
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I feel like you could get a PhD in payments and still barely understand it. Tell me I’m wrong!
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On our first date, Dalmar said he didn’t like dogs, Indian food and coffee.
Just a gentle reminder that Mr. Right might look a little like Mr. Wrong at first.
Also current status:
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Things I am most surprised about after running a non-bank bank:
- the # of folks who want their statements
- the # of ACHs that return for insufficient funds (R01s)
- the sheer cost of providing a bank account (kyc, fraud/AML, baas, network fees, cx, $$ movement, ATMs, interest)
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Why do investors ghost founders? It's so demoralizing so I really want to understand it.
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Folks messaged to ask what a good update looks like. ask investors you're talking to! here's my flow for
@askzeta
:
TLDR: 2-3 points + asks
HIGHLIGHTS: 4-5 highs/lows
KPIs: burn, cash, rev, growth, etc
ASKS: 2-3
SHOUTOUTS: saying TY for making ⌚️ for my biz
❤️: things users say
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It's kinda amazing to me how much of an instant kinship exists amongst entrepreneurs. It's like - i see you, i feel you, i'm also tired. But I will happily bear my soul if I can be helpful to you today.
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I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry:
my hotel room in Vegas is bigger than our house in SF
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When you’re building a financial institution, there’s a lot to celebrate. But there’s something about showing up in
@plaid
exchange today that made us feel real official! Thank you to the whole Plaid team in helping us get this done in record time 🏁🏁🏁
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All I want for Xmas is for every piece of fintech infrastructure to actually do what it says it will do.
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Family finances is one of the biggest opportunities in fintech and here's why (yes, I've been wanting to write this thread for a while). AKA why I'm building
@askzeta
:
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One of the top things I deeply underestimated in starting a fintech company was how hard navigating card printing is. Like wtf.
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Thank you for the kind words, my dad was spectacular. What's worse was that he was double vaccinated. Someone needs to be held responsible.
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Last night, for the first time since my dad died, he visited me in my dream for a fleeting moment that felt insanely real. It was truly an out of body experience. Grief is so complicated.
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One of my biggest struggles w/ fintech is we (investors) continue to prioritize growth > impact. That means we (entres) continue to focus on features that leverage bad behavior to drive growth (spend/borrow/buy more). We need fintech investors who think about returns AND impact.
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It's sadly quite common for folks to assume I'm a man when representing the CEO role at my company. And I won't lie, it really bothers me.
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I have a super, super smart startup exec friend who’s looking for his next gig at a seed/A company. Comes from startups/top-tier consulting and is total magic. Looking for a COO? Comment below with a one-line blurb and he’ll reach out to the ones he’s excited about.
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The fintech community is an incredibly open, supportive and helpful one. Given that we’re arguably all competitive, this is *really* special. I feel privileged to build with people who deeply care about making money work harder for more people.
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And yet, being Indian and trying to get a valid visa in the US is really, really hard. Worth re-considering our stance on how we think about immigrant visas.
Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants. 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (Congrats,
@paraga
!)
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Ever since I was a little girl, I didn’t really dream of the man I’d marry or the wedding I’d have. Instead, I dreamt of the house I’d build and trips I’d take to Italy. It took me 38 years but I’ve finally done it! And now I know what gelato should really taste like. 👅
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Any angels writing checks right now (I'm not!)? I'd love to send a few fintech founders your way.
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I will say this again
@POTUS
@VP
- please, please give India our extra
@AstraZenecaUS
vaccines when we know we’re not going to be using them in the US. The situation there is miserable, and our global leadership is critical.
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We had a 1,000 couples start opening a joint account this week. 🏆
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Going to Money2020 feels like I'm headed to fintech prom. Most of the action is outside the event itself, there's tons of pre and post gaming, and if things go right, a few of us are gonna get lucky.
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There has been so much investment into all these fintech infrastructure platforms but who's supposed to be buying all this? Asking for a friend.
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Why hasn't RTP (real-time-payments) gotten better pickup? It seems like a 10x better ACH.
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I will never understand healthcare in the US. It’s just so so so confusing, inefficient, ineffective and expensive.
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The answer to most things in life is to just add more garlic.
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Just made my first 2023 angel investment into an incredible founder i'm excited to back. ps - DMs work, specially when you solve problems I tell you I have
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@SuB8u
The wild thing was my sambar was suppper spicy and my paneer wasn’t (I went with Indian mild). So torn about what to do next time!
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This is our last weekend in SF. Leaving was a tough decision - there’s a lot we love about it. But we’ve also found it very hard to build a long-term life here - housing, politics, taxes, policy. We’re going to try being gone for a year and see how it goes. Headed to DC!
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Someone just reminded me that we survived TWO bank switches (Galileo/Bankcorp and LCB/FIS). Some days I have no idea how we navigated all that without giving up..
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Just had a port co share that they're shutting down. What's the best way to help an entrepreneur when they're at this point? I'd appreciate hearing from folks who've been here.
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Damn consumer Fintech. You woke up ready to fight today huh?
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I’m 💯 convinced that people who are on top of work email most definitely are not on top personal email. It’s just not possible.
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Something awesome just happened:
@jonstein
sent me a cool opportunity to participate in and then he sent me a note saying how much he typically charges as a benchmark. This is how you level the playing field between genders and I’m hugely grateful for the info.
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Hugely appreciate all the messages for help; we’re all sorted out. I’m sharing this story because I’m hoping folks understand how bad things are in Delhi. Most don’t have access to the same means. Please do anything you can to help - it can truly save someone’s life.
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I need to SO
@dkimerling
. Dan is one of the most honest, humble & no-bull investors I’ve had the pleasure of working with. He’s the 1st person I *want* to call if something goes wrong & is in the trenches w/ me figuring things out. Hugely appreciative to have him in my corner!
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I spent the last 12 months w/
@goforward
and it's incredible to me how much they under-deliver on their brand promise & made me feel like they don't care. I really, really want to have a better experience at the doctor & I'm willing to pay $$ for it: who should I look at?
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A true indian. Even in the middle of arguably the largest crisis of his tenure, the man is watching cricket.
Congratulations to Australia on winning the World Cup! Great run to the finals, India.
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A founder friend who bootstrapped & couldn’t get VC needs some extra $$ to get to profitability. She’s been offered a $350k loan which has to be paid back at 3x within the next 3 years. If she goes belly up, the loan doesn’t have to be paid back. Would you take the deal?
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Here's my
@CharlesSchwab
vs.
@RobinhoodApp
review after trying both for many years. I broke it up into a thread coz I'd love to hear your experience on some of these points.
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@shohinigupta
a) framework for thinking about the success/failures of your business
b) speed with which you execute
c) ability to tell a story about your progress/traction & excite people to help you execute
d) resource allocation
funny thing: a good update looks different for each biz
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My favorite kinda email:
"Hi Aditi, since I have not heard from you, I'll stop reaching out"
Praise be
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It just 🌞 on me what a POWERHOUSE of women are on our captable ❤️
@rohinip
@julieverhage
@NickyGoulimis
@Marla_Blow
@lauraspiekerman
@lolitataub
@calanthiaaa
@tcburning
@caseykcaruso
@lstephanian
@LaurenBerson
@FeliciaCurcuru
@LeslieFeinzaig
@NolaBeth
@elain
@christinazli
@maiab
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Inaction is just as much a decision as taking action is. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that it isn’t.
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I've spoken to several early-stage fintech founders who have $3-5M in the bank but cannot get their programs approved and/or launched. Banks are being hyper-sensitive about new programs (especially consumer) & timelines are taking a long time (a company destroyer). How can we
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@sairarahman
If I want something, I add to my cart and wait 24 hours to checkout. It’s my way of knowing if I really want it. Usually only go back like 25% of the time. Maybe less.
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I am SO DAMN EXCITED to share that we (
@AskZetaApp
) have a new banking partner,
@PiermontBank
. This is a big moment for us for a few reasons...
Before I tell you exactly why, a shout out to
@treasuryprime
for helping match-make us. ❤️
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I am starting a petition that we stop calling it a geriatric pregnancy. Find some new words goddammit.
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What's the best place to put excess biz funds? I just realized
@mercury
isn't paying interest on savings accounts (savage) and I have no interest in using their Treasury account.
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One of the weirdest things about transitioning from early employee to founder is having the CEO title. Suddenly everyone is a lot more stressed around you! And also nicer to you 😂
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When investors say “great companies still get funded”, also realize that you’re telling folks like Amanda that they’re less than. An honest look at how very viable & credible female founders STILL cannot find capital. 👇🏽
Some exciting news:
Today we announce House of Wise was acquired by a leading cannabis marketing firm to take the company to our next level of growth.
2022 has been a tough year for seed stage companies so I thought I'd share a bit of the journey to this point.
⬇️⬇️⬇️
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When I applied for my H1B in 2007, there were too many apps & we were all automatically put into a lottery. I didn’t win the lottery. Immigrating to the US legally, while having highly valued skills, is really, really hard. We’ve got to find a way to fix this.
700,000 applications for H1-B visas were filed this year—but the cap is 65,000. This means that we are losing out on 635,000 educated, high skilled workers ready to work hard, pay lots of taxes, and build our economy. What an absolute joke
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After spending a bunch of time making infrastructure upgrades and switching bank partners, this last month we were back to shipping a ton of new features
@AskZetaApp
. I'm pumped to share the highlights with you:
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One of the things that irks me to no end is most people assume my partner is Indian because I am. He’s not, he’s Ethiopian! We live in 2021, get onboard.
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One of my biggest concerns about Web3 is adding financial incentives to things that really aren't done for financial gain. The best parts of humanity aren't transactional.
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Loved this image from
@rexsalisbury
showing a breakdown of processors, banks and capabilities. and shout out to the
@lithic
team for looking so good!
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I've been on the hunt for a useful perf review framework to build from using the start/stop/continue approach & came across this gem from
@firstround
&
@lennysan
and legit couldn't have asked for something better. Thank you for making my life easier!
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While I appreciate all these messages of support on international women's day/month/year, I struggle with the data that shows venture funding for women FELL to 2.3% from 2.8%.
Words aren't enough. We need to act differently.
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I recently spoke to a lady founder whose been having a hard time navigating $$. I don't understand her space well, so I asked
@MariaSalamancaM
to chat w/ her & guide her. Founder just wrote me saying what a difference it made.
Just a reminder that a little help goes a long way!
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What stops you from switching to a neobank entirely?
I'll go first:
- wires
- cashiers checks for the random requests
These are the only reasons why I still use BoFa for my personal account.
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