I'm excited to introduce Concourse: the first AI Analyst for corporate finance teams
Concourse works with finance teams to assist in day-to-day operations by taking on the most time consuming & manual work
We’re also announcing our $4.7M Seed round co-led by
@a16z
and
@CRV
with
🔥 Some personal news 🔥
After 4+ amazing years
@a16z
today is my last day. Crazy to think that since moving from 🇫🇷 I spent 50%+ of my time in the 🇺🇸 with the firm
What next? Investing ➡️ Operating
Excited to join
@jeeves_inc
to build financial tools for global startups 🦁🚀
1/ Really excited to announce a brand new post on the Latin American Fintech Boom 💥
@astrange
and I have been spending time in the region developing relationships, supporting founders, and investing in companies
So why are we
@a16z
so excited? 👇
1/ Let's talk predictions for fintech in 2021
In 2021 fintechs will need to innovate on their go-to-market strategies as much as they do on their products:
I discuss how offline is back + physical advertising 🏬 + gaming/sports partnerships 🏀🎮 & creators as distribution 👇
I’m so excited to announce that
@jeeves_inc
has raised a $180M Series C at a $2.1B valuation to continue helping power global businesses 🦁🚀
It’s been <6 months since our Series B & <12 months since our Series A from
@a16z
where I 1st started working with the team 💪
Even the folks in Omaha are bullish on the Latin America fintech 💥
ICYM - 🇧🇷
@nubank
just raised $750M from Berkshire Hathaway and crossed 40M users (up from 35M <3 months ago)
If you're a fintech investor and not looking at LATAM fintech - are you even a fintech investor? 🙅♂️
Shoutout to all the LATAM founders & investors who for so long were asked “where are the exits in LATAM”
Congrats to
@velez_david
& the
@nubank
team for paving the way. A perfect ex of the incredible biz that are being built in the region
The exits are coming - still day 1 🚀
💥 New product alert 💥
Today we're announcing the launch of Jeeves Growth. A new multi-currency revenue-based financing solution for global companies 🚀
Excited to share what I've been working on for the last month+
@jeeves_inc
👇
🚨 Huge news from the
@jeeves_inc
team today 🦁🚀
We are announcing our $50M Series B led by
@saarsaar
@crv
. This round comes just 3 months after our Series A led by
@astrange
@a16z
We've been busy & we're just getting started 🔥
1/ One of the most exciting trends going in fintech is the rise of active investing 💎
In this new post
@illscience
& I dive into the new platforms & communities that are enabling this behavior and why we believe that active investing is here to stay 💥
Quick life update 🎉
I’m excited to be taking the next step in my career and go build something new ✨
Forever grateful for the
@jeeves_inc
team and
@thazhmon
for taking a bet on me early on and giving me a ton of room to grow and learn as an operator 🙏
Meanwhile in LATAM over the last few days..
🇲🇽
@miflink
$57M Series B
🇧🇷
@loft_br
<> Credihome
🇧🇷
@seja_cora
$116M Series B
🇧🇷
@quintoandar
$5.1B new valuation
What a time to be building & investing in the region 🚀
1/ Did you know you could get 💰 for holding shares?
Last week AMC announced they are giving away free 🍿 to all $AMC shareholders
This is not new w/ companies like
@Ford
&
@Disney
offering perks
Those who engage shareholders will develop a huge advantage 🥇
A thread 👇
💥 Latest
@a16z
FinTech newsletter 💥
I 🖋 about how the 2020s will be the new age of ownership
By far the most impactful way to build wealth has been ownership (public & private shares, real estate, art, 🏟 teams)
Excited that FinTechs are now making this available to all
One of my favorite
@a16z
co-workers just started a new fund and I’m so pumped for her!! 🥳
@ljin18
is an all star investor and already making amazing investments in the creator space. Excited to already be a co-investor & excited to continue working closely together 🙌
Just got back from trips to Mexico 🇲🇽/ Canada 🇨🇦
The ecosystem of ambitious founders building rock-solid companies in CDMX & Toronto is on 🔥
The status-quo of the Bay Area / Silicon Valley having a monopoly on building the best companies is totally ☠️
Time for a 🧵
Coming back to the bay after spending time in Mexico City 🇲🇽 and absolutely fired up about what we’re building
@jeeves_inc
🦁
⛰ Survived magnitude 7 earthquake
🤝 Meeting happy customers
👫 Hanging with our distributed team
🚀 Jeeves taking over CDMX
✅ Just finishing up my 3rd week building in the startup life
@jeeves_inc
Man is it fun to be working at a startup with extreme product market fit
Every day feels like a win - a new hire that accepted, a new sale, a new product launch 💯
Running fast & running hard 🏃♂️
Super excited to announce our latest fintech investment in
@titanvest
🙌
As the 🌎 of investing has been turned around - Titan is a cornerstone next-gen platform for the modern investor
Couldn't be more pumped to (finally) welcome
@virtualclay
&
@joepercoco
to the
@a16z
family!
1/ How do fintech startups get to scale? 🤔
My point of view on the strategies that have worked based on past success:
⛏️ Improve a current product
🆕 Build a new product
💣 Destroy a profit pool
🪄 Innovate on GTM
Let's dive in 🤿👇
Today we announced the
@jeeves_inc
launch in 🇨🇦 which means that we’re fully live across all North America (🇨🇦/🇺🇸/🇲🇽) where startups + entrepreneurs can use our platform & cards 💳
Excited to continue working towards providing better financial tools for companies around the 🌍
“By launching in Canada we seek to solve a major problem faced by a lot of Canadian startups and fast growing companies,” said William Lam, general manager of
@jeeves_inc
's Canadian operations.
#FinTech
1/ The results are in & LATAM is the number one growing region for venture funding in 2021
Exciting to see the innovation & capital going into the amazing businesses & entrepreneurs in the region
More capital = more disruption
However not all capital is created equal 👇
Exciting news today from us
@a16z
🎉
Looking forward to continue investing in the next generation of FinTech companies & entrepreneurs.
There is still a lot to build and we’re here for it by helping financial services improve & modernize 💪
In a world where Seed rounds now have arguably the best risk / return and are the most contested rounds ever..
How are investors STILL asking Seed founders who have barely any users / customers to provide financial models
Those investors are ngmi 🚩
Big day for us
@jeeves_inc
💥
@theinformation
just named us as one of the 50 Most Promising Startups!
The journey has been incredible so far and proud of what we have built to better support global companies! Still day 1 🦁🚀
Jeeves: Payments & Spend Mgmt for Global Companies
So blessed that Jeeves has been named one of the 50 Most Promising startups by
@theinformation
We're building the future of global banking for startups and just getting started 🦁🚀
1/ Pumped to announce
@a16z
's investment in
@jeeves_inc
🎉
As startups become more & more distributed having the right infrastructure in place is critical 🔑
Jeeves provides 🌎 startups with a unified platform & card for seamless payments & transfers 🤯
@ankurnagpal
Saw a tweet like this (can’t remember who) and it’s 💯 true
#1
: Local VC passes on deal
#2
: Start-up gets into YC
#3
: Start-up raises at 3x the Val.
#4
: Local VC complains about the price
#5
: Starup raises from US fund & local VC fights for small % at high price
😂😂
Given the hiring freezes & layoffs in startup world I wanted to highlight a few roles that
@jeevesinc
🦁 is hiring for in case you / people you know have been affected
I'm also always happy to chat (DMs 👋) to help with connections to other startups that I know are looking 1/n
People ask me about the biggest shift in ➡️ from venture to startups
Fast feedback loops is at the top of my list
In VC I would do ~10 deals / year & it takes years to see if that investment worked
At a startup everyday is a new: launch, hire, sale. I know in RT if it worked
Transitioning from VC to building (and 😇 investing) has allowed me to fully appreciate how valuable angels can be!
Not just deal flow 😉 but partners that can help navigate the smallest (& largest) issues. Sometimes you just need people on your side that have been through it!
Angel investors.
The mythical creatures fundamental to the startup ecosystem.
But like most beings, they don't only come in one shape.
Time for a thread.
The 5 types of Angel Investors 😇:
(and the perfect mix of these for your startup)
For all the fintech 🤓 out there this is huge news for us
@jeeves_inc
🚀
We just became the first B2B financial institution in 🇲🇽 to be approved to be a full Principal Member with
@Mastercard
🎉
We can now issue our own local physical and virtual cards in the country!
Jeeves: Payments & Spend Mgmt for Global Companies
Excited to announce our approval as a full Principal Member with
@MastercardMex
🇲🇽 to continue supporting the 1000+ companies on Jeeves with fully local physical and virtual cards that can be paid back in mxn or usd. Let’s go! 💪🚀🦁
Calling for candidates + referrals for those wanting to work for an early stage 🚀 fintech company
2 new roles:
🙌 Business Operations Lead (to work super closely with me 🙂)
🤝 Partnership Lead (hire
#1
for partnerships)
+ many more
@jeeves_inc
I've seen & invested in a lot of rocketships through my 4 years
@a16z
& Jeeves is best in class
Since investing in the Series A - the company has grown ~8x, already exceeded their YE 🥅 on rev & spend, 📈 waitlist to 15k+ & started 🌎 expansion - a true 🚀 in its purest form 🔥
As a passionate world traveler I am always looking for new places to go and the best places to stay to make the most of the experience 🌎
Today we are announcing our latest investment in Mexico 🇲🇽 - Casai - a new hospitality brand for Latin America
How to spot 🚩 investors
🚩 Public market valuations are correlated to Seed valuations
🚩 Who else is investing? / lack of conviction
🚩 Argues about a point your making that they clearly don’t know anything about
🚩 Wastes your time / ghosts you
🚩 What about TAM?
🏃♂️🏃♀️🏃
2/ First here's the the link to our
@a16z
fintech team's post on where the big ideas we think Fintech will tackle in 2021
Now let's dive in on these go-to-market trends 🤿
Stat of the day:
@jeeves_inc
is currently giving out 1 offer per day 🤯
Come join us on this 🚀 jounrey it’s still only Day 1
Visit our careers page or DM me 👋 (we’re literally hiring in every department)
Yess more
@a16z
x LATAM 🔥
Congrats to
@brianrequarth
& the team at
@latitudlatam
on the round and working with one of the best in the business!
Excited for more founders and support systems for entrepreneurship in the region!! 🚀
1/The logistics of starting a company in the U.S. are a mostly solved problem: Stripe Atlas for company formation, Mercury for business banking, Ramp/Brex for corporate cards, Carta for cap table management, Gusto for HR. Yet, just getting started in many countries is HARD 🧵
💥 BOOM 💥
The Jeeves corporate card just got 100x more powerful 🔥🔥
On top of market leading cash back Jeeves customers can access over $100k in savings from our partners 🎉
DM if you want to partner 🤝
Jeeves: Payments & Spend Mgmt for Global Companies
Introducing… Jeeves Benefits & Rewards! Today marks the official launch of our new program that offers access to over $100,000 in exclusive best-in-class rewards for Jeeves clients around the world. Want to take a sneak peek? 👇
1/ Our main guiding principle
@jeeves_inc
in 2022 has been building products that help startups & SMEs extend their runway 🏃♀️🏃♂️
This week we published a blog post demystifying how to think about runway and steps to take to cut burn
Full post here 👇
1/ We're entering in the new golden age of active investing 🎊
For so long the narrative has been invest in ETFs + Bonds & set-it and forget it
That's not where the new generation is investing - it's too boring & too un-entrepreneurial. 🇺🇸 is all about taking risks
We've seen a lot of inbound today from SMEs looking for a corporate card & expense management to support them
If you've been affected by the Brex shutdown as an SME or have a global business come check us out
@jeeves_inc
& we can support you today! ☺️
Here's how we work:
1/ In case you missed it I had a blast last week
@money2020
Amsterdam 🇳🇱 where we announced the launch of our capital products in the UK 🇬🇧
@jeeves_inc
is continuing to be a 🔑 source of alternative capital + mechanism for runway extension in the midst of global uncertainty 👊
2/ Latin America represents a huge opportunity for fintechs to build better financial products. In many ways we see LATAM where the US was 10+ years ago..
There are over 650M people; the 2 largest countries (🇧🇷 & 🇲🇽) alone are larger than the 🇺🇸 market. It's a huge TAM!
One of the last investments that I was very very excited about while
@a16z
Congrats to
@jordihays
and
@sarahchase
on the round and excited to see you continue to execute 🚀
Make sure
@illscience
puts in the work 😉
It’s official! Super proud of the entire
@deel
team on this new milestone 🔥
I’m so excited for the company + team that
@Bouazizalex
and
@copernicussw
are building!!
Working with them has been one of the highlights of the last year. Thanks for having us along for the ride 🚀
I’m so proud & excited to finally share that
@deel
has raised its Series C of $156 million led by
@ycombinator
Continuity & co-led by
@a16z
+
@sparkcapital
.
That’s 🦄 status, captain!!!
16/ A huge thank you to everyone that's been incredibly helpful with their time, insights, and support as we have grown to understand and invest in the region 🙏
LATAM fintech is on 🔥 and the disruption of financial services in the region is just getting started 🎊
Partnership twitter 🤝
Building out a partnership organization
@jeeves_inc
- what tools should we be implementing / using to manage the programs and partners?
Also DMs open if you want to partner 😉
Checkout our new
@Medium
blog 👇
Wrote something explaining the impact & the why we launched Jeeves Growth last week!
I truly believe that this will change the equation for founders in LATAM + the rest of the world
Access debt funding in any currency for the 1st time ever 🚀🚀
Jeeves: Payments & Spend Mgmt for Global Companies
👀👀
🇬🇧 friends get ready for the upcoming
@jeeves_inc
launch! We’ll soon be adding our 3rd continent in less than 9 months ⚡️
DM me to get early access and off the waitlist (and a personal onboarding form me 😅) 🦁🚀
💯
@thazhmon
&
@sherwingandhi
are truly A++ founders & I couldn't be more excited to join them full-time to keep building & scaling
If you're a company in 🇲🇽, 🇨🇴, 🇨🇦 or 🇪🇺/🇬🇧, hit me up & come check us out. Would love to get you onboard & 🏃 (DMs open 👋 - skip the waitlist 😎)
To understand more about why investors across the globe are interested in Latam fintech take a look at the
@a16z
blog post
@astrange
wrote about the major drivers for change in the region 👇
3/ To give you a good overview - this table gives shows you where some of the large inefficiencies exist in LATAM and how penetrated financial services are across the top countries
The 👉: The Latin American consumer is extremely underserved 😬
🚨
@astrange
x
@HarryStebbings
new podcast drop on the explosive LATAM FinTech growth 🚨
Some real knowledge 💣 being dropped in the convo + hear more about the opportunity
@jeeves_inc
is building 🚀🚀
One of the projects I have been most excited about since discovering the
#crypto
world is
@AugurProject
It's parallels to current apps will only accelerate adoption and showcase the capabilities of blockchain technology 🚀
@coreyj_miller
makes some excellent points ⬇️
1/ For some reason no one seems to be talking about the
@AugurProject
launch on July 9.
If it successfully launches, it will be the most complicated dApp to ever launch on Ethereum (kudos to
@joeykrug
and the team).
Love this write up by
@brunoraillard
🔥
The 🇫🇷 start-up ecosystem is just getting started and very excited to see it continue to grow. Always have been highly impressed with French founding teams (unsurprisingly) and am pumped for the companies they are building! 🚀
If you're excited about working with GenAI and LLMs to build the AI agents of the future we're actively hiring all-star engineers at
@Concourse_ai
We believe that finance is the single most interesting vertical for the application of AI agents and where there is the most room
I'm excited to introduce Concourse: the first AI Analyst for corporate finance teams
Concourse works with finance teams to assist in day-to-day operations by taking on the most time consuming & manual work
We’re also announcing our $4.7M Seed round co-led by
@a16z
and
@CRV
with
If you are curious or want to learn more about the thought leaders in
#crypto
I highly suggest reading this profile on
@katie_haun
!
@bhorowitz
’s blog post is another great piece that summarizes my enthusiasm on having her on board
@a16z
🙌
I traveled to Mexico City to bring you my latest feature: a profile of
@katie_haun
for
@FortuneMagazine
’s Most Powerful Women issue.
She is..
- a badass ex-federal prosecutor
- an unconventional “crypto” VC
- 1st female general partner
@a16z
, & much more
It’s official 🎉
Beyond excited to be working with
@copernicussw
&
@Bouazizalex
in building the most robust payroll solution for companies hiring & managing remote workers
Congrats again to the entire
@deel
team and pumped to be along for the ride 🚀
Thrilled to announce our $14MM Series A investment in Deel, a payroll platform enabling companies to grow their global workforce and providing financial services to these workers. Excited to work w/ the awesome founders
@copernicussw
and
@Bouazizalex
!
Let's go 🦁🚀
The LATAM ecosystem is booming! Super excited to be powering over 60% of the up & coming startups in the region with
@jeeves_inc
Thankful for the vote of confidence 🙏
Jeeves: Payments & Spend Mgmt for Global Companies
Awesome list of LatAm soonicorns 🦄 from our friends at
@ALLVP_
- since we launched 8 months ago, honored to have more than 60% of the list already on Jeeves across regions. Amazing clients and partners 🙏
Sign up today and let us simplify your finances🙌
One of my favorite things of working at
@jeeves_inc
?
I get to send the teams rocket emojis all day on Slack given the momentum and wins 😇
Let’s gooo 🚀🚀🚀🚀
Excited for this launch from
@Storedotapp
🚀
There is a new app store in town and this is going to change the game for developers around the world 🌎
So pumped for
@MorganWBender
& team 🔥
Attention developers!
In celebration of Web Push arriving on iOS 16.4, we're excited to release the Dev Beta.
Web app developers now have access to a true "app store experience." List and claim your app today!
🔥 news -
@jeeves_inc
will be at
#Money2020EU
in Amsterdam 🇳🇱 next week
I will also be speaking on stage about the future of SME financing with a 🌶️ new launch 👀
Who is going to be there - who should I meet? What are the must attend parties? Excited to meet more EU friends 🤗
We got some 🌶 news for you next week 🔥
Also excited to hear
@astrange
and
@thazhmon
discuss all things LATAM and how Jeeves is helping startups in the region get access to credit and scale 💪
And obviously moderated by the great
@MiguelArmaza
👏
Jeeves: Payments & Spend Mgmt for Global Companies
👇 we'll have something to announce next week on a new launch 😻
Come join our cofounder/ceo
@thazhmon
and our lead investor
@astrange
from
@a16z
for a chat at FINNOSUMMIT next week, see you there!
I’m thrilled to share that I’m joining the
@jeeves_inc
team. 🦁
When I first met
@thazhmon
this summer, I was fascinated by his vision and execution. Jeeves is the leading fintech built from the ground up, for fast-growing global companies.
Will continue to stay connected to the world of investing by angel investing and supporting the next generation of fintech founders 💸💸
& of course tweeting & writing about the trends i'm excited about in the fintech world 😇
Would love to thank
@a16z
for taking a wild bet on me post graduating & giving me the opportunity to hone in my investing skills from the best investors in the world 🙏
I have made so many incredible friendships & memories. Too many to tag here but you know who you are 🤗
Shout out for an awesome opportunity to work with my good friend
@matt_haf
at
@jeeves_inc
.
This role is the 1st hire on the Growth Team.
awesome opp to work with one of that fastest growing companies I've seen :) 🚀
To put this all in perspective - 12 months ago we had <50 companies on the platform and a sub 15 person team.
Today we have 150+ people
@jeeves_inc
and work with over 3000 companies across 24 different countries + with multiple product lines 🤯🤯🤯
We’re moving fast 🚀
💯The future is more global, more remote, more international
The next wave of companies building global infrastructure first (whether payments, payroll, equity management) will be 10x+ bigger than single country companies
These outcomes will be massive 🚀🚀
There were waves of Brex/Gusto/Carta for X geo past few years
Now there’s a wave of geo agnostic players in the same markets with the rise of more distributed workforces
Jeeves (corporate cards), Deel (payroll), Ledgy (options management) etc
You know the product you're working on has PMF when...
Customers who leave a company & join a new one ping you on day 1 to set-up their new company on
@jeeves_inc
🦁🚀
5/ Technology is also rapidly changing and for the better
The region hosts a young & growing middle class who are connected to the internet at higher rates than ever before. In 🇲🇽 over 68% have a 📱
Distribution for financial services is getting easier and more accessible
I want to thank all of our customers for the trust they put in us 🙏🙏
This milestone will only allow us to provide you with more tools, better products, more solutions, and cover more geographies to serve your global teams. LFG 🚀🚀🚀
1/ After months of fighting between cities & scooters - which saw scooter bans (SF) and large protests (Santa Monica) - We finally have a resolution!
🔆SM:
#Lime
,
#Bird
,
#Uber
,
#Lyft
🌁SF:
#Skip
,
#Scoot
SF punishes past behavior & SM embraces innovation
Some thoughts below: