Summary:
Conversation with Paul Sawaya, co-founder of Human Interest, which recently raised at $1 billion valuation, that makes it easy for SMBs to provide 401k savings plans to their employees, and helps employees save for their retirement.
We cover so many interesting topics in this conversation across the Human Interest story, numerous lessons learnt, and technologies he's most excited about for the future.
Episode Highlights:
Early experiences like building a FB app before joining Bloomberg
Interviewing with Emmett Shear at Justin.TV
How big company vs. tiny startup experience made him want to start a company
Spending 2 years exploring problems and ideas
Challenges and lessons from "wandering in the wilderness"
Key lesson: focusing on problems first before jumping into futuristic projects
Got excited about solving 401k access problems which led to Human Interest
Only 20% small companies offered 401ks due to setup, admin and cost challenges
Product innovation: automating operational work to lower cost structures and expand access
Building on top of back-office solutions to learn/move fast, then moving in-house
How they moved fast to get early customers for feedback and validating demand
How to spend time during exploration/sabbatical: establish a routine and talk to lots of people
Approaching GTM through an effective partnership and integration strategy
Cleaning up some shady 401k practices by offering better, sustainable solutions
Transitioning out of day to day Human Interest work to spend time with early stage startups
Exploring new ideas for his new project and things he's excited about
Exciting breakthroughs other people might be under-appreciating: Web Assembly to run high intensity server side compute locally in the browser, and AI to reimagine user interfaces
Prototyping to explore and learn new things
Ability to enter ambiguous, messy situations and find a path forward
People who gave him an early break that he is grateful for
Power of developing personal values as a guiding light
Links:
Read more about Human Interest: https://humaninterest.com/
Follow Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automin
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