Our Future Podcast
00:11:11 · Michael Sikand, Simran Sandhu
[00:11:11] S0: Yeah. The more I learn about business, the more I learn that communication and education are like the hardest parts of the game, right? Able to explain your offer to a sales prospect is very, very difficult to help them truly grasp what you're doing. And there's few industries that are more complex than technology and software, right? So being able to communicate this to business owners is difficult. And that's like what we've talked about, right? Like building niche software for specific kinds of businesses and tailoring towards their needs and making things super easy for them to make more money, right, and to improve their processes is I think where the money is getting made right now. You know, we're seeing a reversion away from one size fits all, right? We're seeing it across every category. We're seeing verticalization and a niche, niche, niche, niche, niche approach, right? Think about all the credit applications and products we've seen for specific kinds of businesses, whether it's our boys over at Yassine at that one company that offers credit to e commerce companies in particular. How about Carrot, specifically for the content creator market, right? So they've really understood this particular kind of customer that relies on hard inventory and needs to offload it and can't really afford to pay it upfront. So they found a pretty [00:12:26] S1: to me, though. Right? Like, this isn't a vertical play. It's any kind of b two b company is primed to use this platform. Would you would you agree with that?
00:12:26 · Simran Sandhu, Michael Sikand
[00:12:26] S1: to me, though. Right? Like, this isn't a vertical play. It's any kind of b two b company is primed to use this platform. Would you would you agree with that? [00:12:34] S0: Yeah. I... I'd say it's definitely more for physical goods companies as is what I see and what I've read about Slope, as opposed to services businesses like with an agency and that, you know, you'd probably, not be it's for actually buying something, right? So it's not like you're purchasing software through this platform. It's typically like physical goods. So I feel like in industries like that, people typically aren't as technologically advanced. The tech stack's a little bit more ancient, right? And it's very important to build kind of a platform that understands that customer's needs very intently. Not that they couldn't expand into more services. I mean, buy now, pay later could be used in any business. But I think in particular, it's for companies with very tight sales cycles dealing with physical inventory that needs to get offloaded and then paid for on the back end. [00:13:20] S1: That makes sense. Yeah. And it also makes me think of kind of those hybrid businesses too, which are tech enabled and they have a big software component. But at the end of the day, maybe their hardware is a bigger piece, right? Again, way more expensive, deep tech kind of plays. This could make a lot of sense for.
00:13:20 · Simran Sandhu, Michael Sikand
[00:13:20] S1: That makes sense. Yeah. And it also makes me think of kind of those hybrid businesses too, which are tech enabled and they have a big software component. But at the end of the day, maybe their hardware is a bigger piece, right? Again, way more expensive, deep tech kind of plays. This could make a lot of sense for. [00:13:36] S0: Yeah. I mean, I'm buying a robot, I mean, would be nice to pay later for it. Like, okay, dollars 100,000 for a little Boston Dynamics dog that's going to lift my packages. Yeah. Think about the productivity gains that could come with that, right? Yeah. Cut my payroll down.
00:13:36 · Michael Sikand, Simran Sandhu
[00:13:36] S0: Yeah. I mean, I'm buying a robot, I mean, would be nice to pay later for it. Like, okay, dollars 100,000 for a little Boston Dynamics dog that's going to lift my packages. Yeah. Think about the productivity gains that could come with that, right? Yeah. Cut my payroll down. [00:13:50] S1: There we go. Yeah. So definitely big kudos to Alice and Lawrence. I mean, you know, they raised another $30,000,000 this past September. It's a tough time to be raising that kind of money in this venture market. But I mean, again, they've got the who's who of this space on their cap table. So I mean, truly super impressive. And you don't typically hear people in their late 20s. I mean, would have started this three years ago. So that would have put them at 25, 26 years old, like very, very impressive. And I think they chose a great space and they're well positioned to take over. And so for the second business we are covering today, it is in the fintech space. Now, it started by these three guys, Gabriel Stengel, Tomas Rakitas and John Willett. They're in their mid-20s and they've raised $7,000,000 for this company called Rogo. And they've got big ambitions. They're trying to displace Bloomberg. What they're ultimately trying to do is help you have your own AI version of a personal research analyst. And so they're selling to banks. They're selling to hedge fund... Hedge funds. They're selling to private equity firms. And it's really cool. You and I had the chance to look at the behind the scenes version
00:13:50 · Simran Sandhu, Michael Sikand
[00:13:50] S1: There we go. Yeah. So definitely big kudos to Alice and Lawrence. I mean, you know, they raised another $30,000,000 this past September. It's a tough time to be raising that kind of money in this venture market. But I mean, again, they've got the who's who of this space on their cap table. So I mean, truly super impressive. And you don't typically hear people in their late 20s. I mean, would have started this three years ago. So that would have put them at 25, 26 years old, like very, very impressive. And I think they chose a great space and they're well positioned to take over. And so for the second business we are covering today, it is in the fintech space. Now, it started by these three guys, Gabriel Stengel, Tomas Rakitas and John Willett. They're in their mid-20s and they've raised $7,000,000 for this company called Rogo. And they've got big ambitions. They're trying to displace Bloomberg. What they're ultimately trying to do is help you have your own AI version of a personal research analyst. And so they're selling to banks. They're selling to hedge fund... Hedge funds. They're selling to private equity firms. And it's really cool. You and I had the chance to look at the behind the scenes version [00:14:59] S0: of We got the privileged information that We funds really did. Can was cool.
00:14:59 · Michael Sikand, Simran Sandhu
[00:14:59] S0: of We got the privileged information that We funds really did. Can was cool. [00:15:03] S1: It was cool. So they've compiled over 100,000,000 documents, think like pitch decks, reports, all of that stuff. And, you know, kind of in this GPT style interface, I can essentially get any information that I need and that synthesis is available to me in real time. And so I think it's really cool. I mean, what's funny about them is they started this business a few years ago. They were incubated out of Ali Corp. And I think they have a really unique model where they essentially deploy, you know, a million dollars with these businesses and they kind of give you the resources to get off the ground. And so I believe Gabe and the guy who runs Ali Corp, Kevin Ryan, had some kind of personal connection and he took a chance on him and wow, did it pay off. [00:15:46] S0: So Dude, having a personal Having a personal connection to Kevin Ryan would just be perfect for, like, a young college grad, like, hotshot. Right? Like, he knows everybody. He is, He was a co founder of our parent company here at Morning Brew Business Insider. [00:15:59] S1: Yep.