20VC: Why The Unbundling of Fintech Will Continue, How VCs Are Propping Up The Neo-Banking Industry & Why We Need A New Framework To Value Businesses Today with Clay Wilkes, Founder & CEO @ Galileo
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clay Wilkes is the Founder & CEO @ Galileo, the API standard for card issuing and digital banking, powering many of the leading global FinTech companies including Chime, TransferWise and Monzo to name a few. Prior to their reported $1.2Bn acquisition by SoFi, Clay raised just $86M in funding with Galileo from the likes of Accel and Ryan Smith @ Qualtrics, having run the company as a profitable company before that for over 15 years. Clay also has a keen interest in philanthropy having created the Galileo foundation with his wife in 2005.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Clay made his way into the world of tech and startups more than 20 years ago and how he came to build the foundations for many fintechs today with Galileo?
2.) When looking at the current financial ecosystem does Clay believe we are in a phase of bundling or unbundling? Does Clay believe we will see the verticalisation of banking? Will every company become a payments company? Does Clay believe we will see consolidation in the space?
3.) What does Clay believe were the benefits of going 15 years withour raising VC money, building a profitable business? What are the trade offs? What could he have done if he had raised? With hindsight, does Clay wish he had raised earlier? Why was then the right time to raise?
4.) Why does Clay believe the discovery mechanism for VCs finding startups is broken? How did Clay select the venture firm he chose to work with, Accel? What advice does Clay give to board members when it comes to being the best board member to their founders?
5.) Why did Clay believe that selling to SoFi was the right decision? What are the benefits of the merger? How does Clay think about the competitive element that many of Galileo's current clients are competitors with SoFi? How do they remedy and solve for that today?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Clay’s Fave Book: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, at H. Stebbings, 1996 with 2Bs on |
| 0:05.1 | Instagram. And if you haven't heard our episode with Chamath at Social Capital from Monday, then that |
| 0:09.3 | really is a must. But to our show today, and this company powers many of the leading global |
| 0:13.9 | fintech players today. And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Clay Wilkes, founder and CEO |
| 0:18.3 | Galileo, the API standard for card issuing and digital banking, |
| 0:22.2 | powering the likes of Chime, TransferWise and Monzo, to name a few. |
| 0:25.9 | Prior to their reported $1.2 billion acquisition by SoFi, Clay raised just $86 million in funding |
| 0:31.5 | with Galileo from the likes of Excel and Ryan Smith at Qualtrix. |
| 0:35.2 | Having run the company as a profitable company before that for over |
| 0:38.1 | 15 years. Clay also has a keen interest in philanthropy, having created the Galileo Foundation with |
| 0:43.3 | his wife in 2005. And I'd also want to say a huge thank you to John at Excel, Amit Jehoa, and Juan |
| 0:48.6 | Benitez for the fantastic question suggestions. I really do so appreciate that. But before we move |
| 0:53.4 | into the show today, |
| 0:58.3 | I want to take a moment to mention HelloSign, a great example of a company that found success in building a product focused on user experience. HelloSign is an effortless e-signature |
| 1:02.8 | solution used by millions to securely send and requests legally valid digital signatures and |
| 1:07.9 | agreements. They raised a total of $16 million in funding and recently |
| 1:11.5 | got acquired by Dropbox for an impressive $230 million. Check out HelloSign.com forward slash |
| 1:17.2 | 20VC to join the thousands of companies and founders who value fast, secure and simple e-signatures. |
| 1:23.8 | And speaking of beautiful product there with HelloSign, I want to talk to you about point |
| 1:27.2 | card, who our dear friend from the show, Jeff Morris Jr., says, has become his go-to card for everyday spend instead of his Chase Sapphire Reserve. |
| 1:34.7 | PointCard is the first debit card with rewards from brands you actually care about. |
| 1:38.6 | With PointCard, you can earn 5x1 subscriptions like Spotify, 3X1 ride share and food delivery apps like Postmates, and |
... |
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