Conversation with Prasanna Sankar - whose most recent company, Rippling, went from zero to $1.35b valuation in less than 4yrs. We talk about his experiences working on startups for over 10 years, finding and scaling success at Rippling, and why he believes crypto will be a transformative new economic engine.
Episode Highlights:
Getting started as a programmer in high school
Approach to building from first principles and becoming the top ranked coder in India
Moving from Microsoft Bing team to Silicon Valley and pitching to Paul Graham
Building LikeALittle - hyper-growth phase, passing on M&A, eventual crash and burnout
Joining Zenefits and the visionary genius of Parker Conrad
Founding Rippling - clear and ambitious vision requiring a large up-front build
Path to $1.35b valuation in under 4 years, leading to hyper growth and scaling phase
The blockchain movement and why it could be the next big thing
Thoughts on crypto use cases and framework for how adoption will grow over time
Ethereum as the gateway into crypto-native activities
Exciting infrastructure being built today - faster Ethereum, and high speed bridges between chains
Why blockchain will be the economic engine for the future, and how it allows creators to maximize wealth creation
Thoughts on planned move from the US to Singapore which is becoming the "crypto capital of the world"
Recommended reading: Tendermint white paper on Consensus without Mining
Links:
Follow Prasanna on Twitter at @myPrasanna, check out his terrific blog, and his AngelList fund
For more of Prasanna's thoughts on crypto/blockchain, check out his blog post on Building a Trillion Dollar Crypto Business, and his talk on Blockchain- The New Steam Engine
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