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Cache Flow

Brian Dainis
Cache Flow
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  • E63: Tech-Savvy Banking: APIs, Fintech, and Future Finance
    Meet Kent Landvatter, CEO of FinWise Bank, a financial haven for the fintech space. With 14 years at the helm, he shares intriguing insights from enabling FinTech platforms with API layers to navigating the complex web of regulation. Tune in for a deep dive into the symbiotic relationship between traditional banking and modern technology, from automated lending to combating money laundering and beyond.Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Cache Flow Podcast.Kent's journey from traditional banking to FinTechFin Wise's robust SBA lending and tech stackHow APIs streamline FinTech lending operationsThe role of stable coins in modern bankingKent discusses regulatory relationships and AIResources:FinWise BankCurotec Connect with Kent Landvatter:LinkedInConnect with our host, Brian Dainis:LinktreeQuotables:05:11 - The thing that's been interesting to watch in SBA land, because I've been there for many, many years, is a lot of administrations will cut back on the subsidy or will increase the subsidy, you know, to, to save money or to, you know, expand small business lending. But SPA, and I don't have the actual data, but SPA is one of the few government programs that I believe actually at least breaks, even if not makes money for the government, because when someone does an SBA loan, part of what they pay for that SB loan, SBA loan is a fee that helps, you know, support the subsidy. So the subsidies really there as a backstop if the, if too many loans go bad, but a lot of those fees were being paid by banks and customers that are participating in the program. 05:11 - The thing that's been interesting to watch in SBA land, because I've been there for many, many years, is a lot of administrations will cut back on the subsidy or will increase the subsidy, you know, to, to save money or to, you know, expand small business lending. But SPA, and I don't have the actual data, but SPA is one of the few government programs that I believe actually at least breaks, even if not makes money for the government, because when someone does an SBA loan, part of what they pay for that SB loan, SBA loan is a fee that helps, you know, support the subsidy. So the subsidies really there as a backstop if the, if too many loans go bad, but a lot of those fees were being paid by banks and customers that are participating in the program. 14:07 - For the larger banks, I think SBA lending is just a step for them to bring a customer who's not ready for a regular commercial loan into the fold. Right? And then they'll try and put 'em into a commercial loan as soon as they can and sometimes pay off the SBA loan where they make money, the bank makes money both on the, on the premium and then, yeah. 'cause they'll sell these out to the marketplace and then they can re write that into a commercial loan. And I think that's generally what you see. But there are a handful of banks, one of ours being ours, being one of those that really focuses on this as a core business. 'cause if you think of the total SBA volume that's produced each year, it's probably a rounding air for a bank like Citibank or what have you. For banks like ours, it can be very meaningful. And so we've got a very deep SBA program and SBA department and we pride ourselves on fast turn times and being able to get the data together in a right way that helps a customer gather and understand what's happening. And, and so we're not always going back for more and more and more. And I think you're a strong SBA lenders, you know, focusing just more and more on that would probably be similar to this.15:32 - I think you might have more insight on this, but I think it, obviously the commercial lending terms typically are a little better than the SBA lending terms, but you know, then you have like covenants and stuff that you have to meet typically on the commercial side, whereas the SBA doesn't. And I think what I understand is, you know, it makes sense to look at commercial when you either have a strong collateral position that you can offer the bank or if you have, I don't like, I have a professional services firm, so there's like no collateral other than cash and ar. So I think what made sense there was to have like at least a few million in EBITDA to really take the commercial side more seriously.40:42 - But if we build an API that's customize, customizable by the FinTech where they can go in and optimize all that, they can say, if it's up to this time and the customer wants it this fast, use these rails and they can optimize the use of the rails because it's all on our system. And so they can push the money or receive the money any way they want, but push the money which is optimal for the customer and at the lease cost for the FinTech. And then when you add that to the, the lending side, receiving payments and so forth, it really gives a FinTech a lot more options of one stop shopping on the movement of the money and support of their customers.
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  • E62: Dropping Harvard for Startup Dreams with Palash Soni
    In this riveting episode, Palash Soni, CEO of Gold Cast, shares his bold journey from an HBS dropout to tech startup success. His company, revolutionizing B2B marketing with AI video campaigns, thrived amid Covid uncertainty, defied odds with rapid growth, and now raises questions about the future of SaaS innovation. Tune in to dive into his riveting tales, fundraising adventures, and insights on crafting a venture that stands out in the saturated software market.Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Cache Flow Podcast.Palash details Gold Cast's emergence in 2020.Harvard dropout bets big on AI video SaaS.Growth hack: Calendar invites boost attendance.Goldcast's branding edge over competitors.Second product's success signifies an inflection.Founders grapple with a saturated SaaS future.Resources:GoldcastCurotec Connect with Palash Soni:LinkedInConnect with our host, Brian Dainis:LinktreeQuotables:10:22 - We didn't have Visas to work with and it was, you know, 2020 May Republican government. So we had to get through visas and we also were kind of perceived as late to market even though the market was created two months back. But just because so many people had raised so much money, all of a sudden we were under a lot of scrutiny, like a lot of questions around why this company should exist. So, the other angle was that we had the stick-in-neck problem of we needed money or VCV money to get a visa. The only way we could get a visa is this visa called an O-1 visa. Some people like advertise it as Einstein Visa, which it is not called by the US government, but it's essentially for entrepreneurs or PhDs or people who are doing outstanding work in their fields.13:07 - The equation for me and for everyone has flipped in the last two years to saying, okay, what, like, VC money is not a given and it should only be raised when there is a venture scale opportunity to go after. And we are still figuring that out. We have a very strong thesis around having an end-to-end video platform that can change the game for marketers and enterprises, but it's still early, like it's a decently complicated product piece that we are building. So we have early proof points that we can raise another round and justify that valuation. But yeah, we need proof stuff out before we race. So the short answer is we will, we are on that path, but it's not the only path we can take.27:01 - So we actually preach the opposite, Brian, that you should not just have MQLs as the end goal of webinars. So what we say and what we do also in our own motion is that webinars are part of like a bigger content motion, right? So the, the most results from webinars is obtained when you do it, and then you let the content live in many other places and operationalize that content in ways where it can generate value. 24:00 - I do think that the chasm is starting to be crossed with AI B2B, AI products. I think, you know, businesses are starting to move from, you know, starting to move from early adopters to like early majority with AI products. So it might be, if my, you know, assumption there is correct, it might be a good time in the next couple of years to really sell it. 42:04 - Same thing is with software, right? It's all the obvious opportunities have been picked off in the last 10 years. Even the most non-obvious have been picked off. So as a result, I think two things are happening, which at least I see anecdotally and then probably data will verify it, is that it is also, it has become a lot more, it's a, it's become a lot harder for younger founders to succeed in SaaS because you genuinely need a lot of depth and, and tribal knowledge of having worked in an enterprise or having been super deep in some, some area to actually come up with an insight that can lead to a venture scale product. So that's one. And in general, I think that realization dawned on a little late on everyone including founders and venture community that this is not the 1960s, this is like the 1990s of cars, but the underwriting of everything in the Zera era was being done as if it's 1960s. So that led to all of this over-digestion of capital. I do think with AI there is a new pool of opportunities that is coming in.
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  • E61: Crafting Success: Amer's Leap from Corporate to Founder
    Dive into the dynamic world where corporate meets creativity with Amer, a serial entrepreneur with five startups and a vision for shaking up traditional business models. Explore the high-stakes thrills of entrepreneurship and discover how AI is revolutionizing video production—all in this invigorating chat loaded with lessons and laughter.Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Cache Flow Podcast.The tough transition from corporate to founderBuilding five companies with two successful exitsPioneering short-form video contentIntroducing AI to modern video productionThe balance of tech and human touch in businessResources:LucihubCurotec Connect with Amer Tadayon:LinkedInConnect with our host, Brian Dainis:LinktreeQuotables:03:26 - Well, I think that you do one of two things. Either you realize you just can't do it and you move on and you go back into, you know, corporate America or you say, okay, let me see if I can do this again and not relive the same lessons. And that's the hard part, I think, is to remember the mistakes you made and not apply them a second or a third or a fourth time for me. I had to learn the same mistake a few times and then finally, finally not apply it. 16:38 - I think that's a really, I think that's the future of a lot of these SaaS companies because everyone's, you know, all the product categories that can be fully automated I think have already been done. It's hard to do things new that, you know, haven't been done before. And, you know, kind of taking human component, integrating humans into your product experience, but delivering it at a SaaS product, I've seen a lot of businesses do some really cool things.15:46 - It's human. It's human editors. Now we leverage a ton of AI tools to accelerate it, but at the end of the day, you know, I always say, you know, design and what we do is subjective, and subjective is always gonna need a human touch. So, you know, there's a lot of hype around AI replacing editors and filmmakers and all of this stuff. And, you know, I think it's gonna accelerate things, but I just don't think, our who we are as people is, you know, you're not gonna let technology tell you what looks great. 27:40 - I don't think you can stop innovation and the progress. I think you're gonna have to figure out how to work with it, right? And that's what we're trying to do. We're saying, Hey, how do we do this? And, you know, we're not eliminating people by any means. We're actually just accelerating the work and being able to do more with less. And I think what's cool about being a startup in this day and age is AI is woven into the fabric and into the DNA of this business, right? We started AI at our core. And so, you know, we embrace all of this. 37:05 - I I think they're either gonna have to find a way to leverage technology to be more efficient, or they're just not gonna get business anymore. I mean, it's the reality of it you know when I had my production company, what is it, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, it was harder to do this. So you could justify charging a lot more for it. But the tech is really democratizing a lot of this, right?And so we talked to an agency last week in LA who said, our client will is willing to pay us one 10th of what they used to pay us two years ago to do this, these videos. And we stopped doing them because it just didn't make sense. 
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  • E60: Scaling the SaaS Summit: Bootstrapping to Success
    Join us as we unravel the inspiring bootstrapping saga of Sana Kumar, Founder and CEO of Kovai.co. With a gripping tale of growth from niche product programming to leading three booming SaaS products, Sana shares wisdom on entrepreneurship, the challenges of multi-product focus, and leveraging AI for innovation. Tune in for a hearty blend of tech talk and founder foresight!Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Cache Flow Podcast.Bootstrapped a niche SaaS to 300 peopleCreated LinkedIn content as a CEODiscovered a gap in Document 360Killed a product after 4-year runEmphasized scaling current productsResources:KovaiCurotecConnect with Saravana Kumar:LinkedInConnect with our host, Brian Dainis:LinktreeQuotables:03:51 - The problems typically what large companies face at some point, they all need to talk to each other. You might need a customer data from your SAP system into your Salesforce. And from Salesforce, some data need to go into your workday and all these things. So that is where the specialty of this Microsoft product, sits in the middle, it connects everything together and helps you to build that kind of integrated systems.20:49 - There's kinda like two ways you can think about a SaaS product, either verticalized or horizontal and like a Calendly or you know, like a Document 360 or you know, a QuickBooks. Those are like horizontal SaaS products. And you know, I think once you kind of feel like, I think horizontal focus, like just purely horizontal focus worked, a decade or two decades ago better than it does now. And I think in order to go to market, well with a horizontal product, you kind of have to like put it into verticals. So you have to say, you know, even if the product itself is horizontal, you still have to like market and sell it as, you know, healthcare focus or tech focus or maybe construction or whatever the vertical is. And then if you've got a verticalized product, like a product that's initially designed for one industry, then I think the expansion opportunities you have to like figure out what other sort of similar industries you can move it to.11:24 - So they're talking about Lotus Notes and they're comparing Lotus to Microsoft and they're saying, you know, Lotus, Lotus's advantage in the market is that they're creating, they're the first groupware products that is, you know, serving the enterprise use case. And they're like, this is probably gonna give Lotus Notes a competitive advantage over Microsoft for years to come.31:51 - So let's talk about bootstrapping. I think it's super awesome. Like anytime I hear about, you know, SaaS companies that have achieved scale and especially bootstrapping it, you know, it's, it's certainly very hard to build a SaaS company because there's a ton of upfront RND and then when you do start getting customers, typically it's like small chunks of money on a monthly basis. It's not like you're selling a big consulting contract where you have a huge down payment. So you know, it takes a while to kind of get the steam engine going to be profitable. So like why, why did you bootstrap, why didn't you raise capital and, you know, how did you fund the company? Like how did all that get going?36:48 - And nowadays you just spin up like, you know, you just install Node JS or Laravel or Ruby on Rails and you've got like a full application scaffolding to like,  you can write, write an app in like, a couple weeks if you're really good and fast and you know, simple app and so like technology's no longer remote. I think the moat nowadays, unless you have like some super difficult to get data that's core to your application, you know, the technology itself is not the mote, but the mote is distribution of the technology, the ability to acquire, acquire customers 
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  • E59: Inside the Mind of a Holding Company Innovator: Brent Beshore
    Dive into the fascinating world of HoldCos with Brent Beshore, the mastermind behind a 15-company empire. From untangling the definition of a HoldCo to exploring the gritty details of CEO transitions, this episode uncovers the delicate art of building a lasting business conglomerate. Join us for an insightful blend of strategy revelations and Brent's personal entrepreneurial journey that's anything but linear. Don't miss this masterclass on nurturing small giants!Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Cache Flow Podcast.What exactly is a HoldCo?HoldCo vs. Private Equity specifics.Unpacking the 'adolescent phase' of a business.The challenges of centralizing business operations.Insightful strategies for hiring CEOs.Adapting to unexpected business conditions.Balancing cash flow and reinvestment decisions.Resources:Permanent EquityCurotec Connect with Brent Beshore:LinkedInConnect with our host, Brian Dainis:LinktreeQuotables:02:14 - The nature of what a HoldCo is, you know, by nature it's usually there's no terminal end date to a HoldCo versus a private equity fund usually as a 10 year lifespan. So we're kind of in the blend of between you know, we've got a 30 year initial term. We can also renew, we can go longer than 30 years if we want to. So we have a lot of the functionality of a HoldCo, but technically each fund is its own private equity fund. I mean, private equity broadly just means you buy equity and private company. So technically a HoldCo is also a private equity firm in the sense that it buys equity in private companies.36:39 -  Brian: They're not ever fully responsible for their own failures or successes. But, you know, especially failures, specially failures, which is what you want. You want people to own their success and their failures and be responsible for their success and failures. And it's, you know, it makes sense that the way that works in a single company applies when you have a portfolio of companies. So it kind of, I had to hear it from you to fully soak in the why part, but it, it makes total sense at that point.Brent: Well, here's another one that's kind of like this, that's an insight that's hard earned. And when I say it initially, you're gonna say, wait, what? Because I would've said the same thing, which is, small businesses don't have access to good talent. And you're like, no, wait a minute, is that making fun of or is that poking fun at at small businesses?28:59 - We should see clear opportunities and we should be able to clearly see the lids on that business that's been holding it back. And then we're really honest with people, Hey, these are the things we wanna do after close, this is what we want to help you guys with. This is how we wanna be operationally involved so that we all win together. And they're like, great, we don't know anything about that stuff. So help us. We need help. 25:19 - So John Malone, the cable industry was his thing. He didn't care about anything else. He wanted to be in the media, cable business, and he was gonna go as deep as possible as he could do it. And he built an incredible business based on that. He used a tremendous amount of debt. He was able to finance a lot of it through pre-tax dollars. It was brilliant, right? I mean, he actually created the term EBITDA, right? So the term EBITDA we used, like John Malone actually created that so that he could get banks to understand how to finance his operations. That's how smart he was.50:35 - We don't always hit home runs. We're hitting a lot of foul balls and we're hitting a lot of ground and rule singles, you know, I mean, so it's not like this is not an exact science and we don't have it all figured out. So just as you know, take everything with a grain of salt. We've done this for a long time. We've worked with a lot of CEOs and I would say we keep getting humbled over and over and over again. And I think this is just, look, the thistles and thorns of operating business
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The Cache Flow podcast is built for high-growth tech-focused companies looking for creative and effective ways to solve their product development challenges. On our show we’ll discuss how to solve everything standing in the way of boosting the performance of your development team.
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