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In this Fintech Leaders edition, I sit down with Jason Wilk, serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder and CEO of Dave (NASDAQ:DAVE), a US challenger bank that reached 10 million clients in just four years.
Founded in 2017, Dave went public in January 2022 via SPAC and currently has a market cap of close to $4 billion. As a private company, Dave raised almost $200 million and attracted top investors and personalities like Mark Cuban, Norwest Venture Partners, Financial Solutions Lab, and even Diplo.
In this episode, we discuss:
How losing a round of golf sparked his curiosity for international business, tech, and entrepreneurship.
“My whole life I thought I was going to be a professional golfer… Well, I ended up getting paired on a golf course with a very successful CEO of a public company... And he absolutely just destroyed me... And he told me that he did not recommend me going pro... So I kept in contact with him. And he was the one who convinced me to take some time off golf and go study abroad in China, where really started falling in love with internet businesses.”
Fundraising lessons. What has Jason learned from multiple roadshows of equity fundraising as a private company and then as a public company? How did he bring Mark Cuban onboard?
“You want to first raise money from people who are going to help you. There's a lot of investors out there who all they want to do is write a check and stay behind the scenes. That can be fine, but you want people who you really can ask for advice, who can help you with strategy. People that really want to roll up their sleeves and help. And Mark [Cuban] was always that guy.”
Going public. Lessons learned from the SPAC process and why they chose this route instead of an IPO.
“We have a great business, and so it didn't really matter for us which route we took. We chose a SPAC because it was just a little bit faster and we had more guarantees on the amount of capital we were going to raise. So that's why we chose that route versus an IPO.”
Launching Dave as a non-bank and why listening to customer feedback led them to expand their product set and become a challenger bank… and a lot more!
“We weren't sure when we were going to do it [expand their product set], so it all came down to talking to customers. That’s the best thing you can do... They loved borrowing from us, they loved the bill alerts, but ultimately they were sick and tired of their bank. Their number one requested feature was for Dave to get into banking ourselves. So just by listening to our customers, we knew it was time.”
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Emerging Fintech Leaders
Want to break onto the fintech scene with a feature in our newsletter? Introduce us to your startup! You can also find the full list of featured companies here.
Three early-stage fintech companies doing amazing things:
Ⓜ️ EMTECH (@emtech_inc on Twitter)
EMTECH is re-imagining central banking infrastructure by providing modern API-first Regulatory and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) SaaS Platforms. In doing so, the company aims to unlock unprecedented value, and drive inclusion and resilience in financial markets of the future. By modernizing central banking infrastructure, EMTECH is solving a critical pain point and unlocking a major addressable market for the age of open banking and decentralized finance.
💰Funding Status: EMTECH raised their seed round in October 2020 from an investor syndicate including Noemis Ventures, XFactor Ventures, and 500 Startups.
👩🏾💻 Founder: Carmelle Cadet (LinkedIn / Twitter @CarmelleCadet)
⚡️ LINXE
Colombian fintech Linxe is a payroll-based embedded financial services platform for low-wage workers. Using their tech, employers can empower their employees to take greater control over their salaries without the hassle of complicated paperwork. Participating employees choose the form (credit or advance), amount, and duration with a few simple clicks.
💰Funding Status: Linxe has raised pre-seed capital from the Western Union/Techstars Accelerator alongside Arebol Capital and Loyal VC.
👥 Co-Founders: Diego Rodríguez Castillo (LinkedIn) and Cesar Julio Cuevas (LinkedIn)
🛍 PACKWORKS
Packworks empowers micro-entrepreneurs managing sari-sari stores and mini-groceries in the Philippines through scalable and accessible technology. The platform empowers microbusinesses by helping manage inventory, bookkeeping, POS systems, data analytics. As a result, store owners gain crucial financial literacy skills. Packworks started out as a B2B solution for multinational companies in the Philippines to connect with neighborhood stores, and has now transformed into a way out of poverty for the millions of sari-sari store owners across the country.
💰Funding Status: Packworks currently has a $2M seed round committed and was a member of the Western Union/Techstars Fintech Accelerator’s most recent class.
👥 Co-Founders: Bing Tan (LinkedIn), Hubert Yap (LinkedIn), and Ibba Bernardo (LinkedIn)
Want to break onto the fintech scene with a feature in our newsletter? Introduce us to your startup! You can also find the full list of featured companies here.
-Thank you for reading!
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Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.
Dave Co-Founder/CEO, Jason Wilk – Going Public on Nasdaq via SPAC, Lessons for Overlooked Startups, & Why you Should Always Listen to Customer Feedback