Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups

where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. I'm Natasha

Masqueriness and this is our Wednesday show where we niche down to a single

person, think about their work, and

unpack the rest. Today's show brings together a ton of Equity Wednesday themes into one episode,

so I'm very excited. We're talking about vulnerability, shut downs, building in public, and on ramps and off ramps into this wild choice to be an entrepreneur.

So I'm super excited to say that we are talking to Kristen Anderson, the co-founder and CEO of

catch an app to provide payroll benefits for people who are self-employed.

Kristen, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you for being on. I'm so glad that you're on. I mean, I think a ton of people have reacted to your choice back in March to shut down your company catch and I want to talk about all of that.

But before we get into the heart of the show,

tell me a little bit about yourself, your background,

and really like why in the world

you ever wanted to be a founder to begin with? Yeah, it seems like a hard profession. Yeah, it is and for those who don't know it was less by choice than maybe most people who enter the industry so I had worked in venture back tech for a couple years.

I got hired to lead product at a company

that did student debt repayment as an employer-led benefit.

And while I was there, I got an email from a guy who wanted to hire me to a startup and they were about eight people and he wanted to hire me to lead product.

There was just enough mystique to really get my attention.

And so I actually joined Catch as head of product.

There was a team.

There was no product.

There was no customers.

...