Pinned post
got a lot of new followers recently, figured i'd do a intro about myself:
- went to waterloo for cs + finance
- first year, played dota 24/7, almost dropped out to pursue it professionally
- ranked top in canada, but not globally
- didn't see a way to make a living if you aren't top top
- decided i want to get into investment banking after graduation
- but have 50s in every course, can't just apply directly
- networked in canada with a spreadsheet of almost every analyst at every bank (there are only 300+)
- struggled with finding my first coop as the financial crisis just happened
- got a coop at a bank doing back office tech
- got a coop a bank doing treasury at
- got a coop doing sales & trading
- got a coop doing equity research sales
- got a coop at a pension doing private infra investing
- got a coop at a pension doing private equity
- yes, waterloo has 6 coops and i turned it into 8 so i could get into banking
- became ceo of waterloo's student-led investment fund
- represented the school's CFA competition and won #1
- grinded so hard during this last school term for anything BUT school, went to hospital for wrist problems
- finally got a full time offer to work in investment banking on wall street
- got screwed by h1b, was told to wait for the lottery
- didn't just sit still, networked my ass off again with the canadian banks
- ended up joining CIBC's M&A group in a week
- had some of the best 3 years of my life grinding, truly learned so much so quickly
- left to do private debt investments at the biggest pension fund in canada
- a year later, hiked the highest peak in europe in russia and almost died
- completely changed my perspective on valuable life is, and how much i've been wasting it
- decided to quit with nothing lined up, friends said nice things but deep down thought i was a write off
- removed all irrational constraints in life and wanted to find roles that had no ceilings (i hate ceilings)
- thought hard about sales and somehow came across startups
- joined a 5-person startup in canada as VP finance, literally working in the founders house, taking calls in the washrooms, just like HBO's silicon valley
- then joined a series A us-based insurtech startup but still in canada, leading finance, then promoted to also do operations
- after that, joined wrapbook around series A to as director of finance
- witness the company 13x in a year, helped raise series B, also built the entire data analytics function
- started to realize starting a company isn't impossible
- always thought you needed to be a genius like elon
- but after working with so many founders, realized the common pattern is just risk-tolerance and determination, which i think i'm very good at
- faced with the ultimate choice: do i want to 1) stay at wrapbook, best case scenario take it public become cfo and make something like $50 million? or 2) try my own thing for the next [5] years, not succeeding (yet) at all but i'm giving my 120%, making no money
- realized it was a simple choice: i would regret going with 1) when i die, but not 2)
- quit again without anything lined up
- did EF in toronto to look for a cofounder, but the ecosystem is so bad in canada
- applied to YC a week late, somehow got an interview
- was told i need to come back with either a co-founder or a product
- drive to various cities to meet with potential cofounders same day
- picked up programming courses (this was just before chatGPT launch)
- realized the best cofounder candidates, vcs, and customers are all based in SF
- convinced my wife to move to SF with me, she was hesitant but wanted to support me
- on Dec 31, 2022 5pm, we started our 5 day drive from toronto to SF, getting to our first stop at chicago by 2am on new years day
- by day 4, somewhere salt lake city, i got to interview with YC again
- presented them with a working prototype i coded in google sheets appscript
- 30 minutes later, got a call from yc partner "ok, we want to let you in, but batch starts in 2 days, are you willing to move from toronto?"
- my reponse: "jared, i've already left. GPS says i'll be there in 13 hours, i'll make it"
- got into YC
- went through demo day as a non-technical solo founder but ended up raising what an average round is
- hired a founding eng and founding designer
- heads down building for 2 years
- grew mostly organically from word-of-mouth and referrals
- started off with solving accounting for startups
- but realized the taxes space also sucked, and no one wanted to solve it as it's not a vc-fundable size
- but it could work really well for my gtm, and it's a founders top finance problem day 0
- studied over hundreds of hours to get a tax license, manually filed taxes for the first 100 customers
- became profitable, but not by intention
- fall 2025 founding engineer leaves, panicked as we don't have anyone to ship anymore
- forced myself to pick up cursor and ship
- forced my designer to also ship
- also sponsored ruby conferences and intensely recruited
- ended up hiring a founding eng anyway
- today team is 9 people with a few co-ops from waterloo
- ~1k customers, many have been using finta since day 1
- seen dozens of customers go on to raise series b/c+ and helped many get acquired by faang or the labs
- i ship 3-4k prs per month, still thinks i'm "non-technical"
- constantly changing the way we work because our tools are improving at a rate faster than we can use them
- feeling more motivated and determined than ever to solve the problems users face in accounting, taxes, and finances
- went to waterloo for cs + finance
- first year, played dota 24/7, almost dropped out to pursue it professionally
- ranked top in canada, but not globally
- didn't see a way to make a living if you aren't top top
- decided i want to get into investment banking after graduation
- but have 50s in every course, can't just apply directly
- networked in canada with a spreadsheet of almost every analyst at every bank (there are only 300+)
- struggled with finding my first coop as the financial crisis just happened
- got a coop at a bank doing back office tech
- got a coop a bank doing treasury at
- got a coop doing sales & trading
- got a coop doing equity research sales
- got a coop at a pension doing private infra investing
- got a coop at a pension doing private equity
- yes, waterloo has 6 coops and i turned it into 8 so i could get into banking
- became ceo of waterloo's student-led investment fund
- represented the school's CFA competition and won #1
- grinded so hard during this last school term for anything BUT school, went to hospital for wrist problems
- finally got a full time offer to work in investment banking on wall street
- got screwed by h1b, was told to wait for the lottery
- didn't just sit still, networked my ass off again with the canadian banks
- ended up joining CIBC's M&A group in a week
- had some of the best 3 years of my life grinding, truly learned so much so quickly
- left to do private debt investments at the biggest pension fund in canada
- a year later, hiked the highest peak in europe in russia and almost died
- completely changed my perspective on valuable life is, and how much i've been wasting it
- decided to quit with nothing lined up, friends said nice things but deep down thought i was a write off
- removed all irrational constraints in life and wanted to find roles that had no ceilings (i hate ceilings)
- thought hard about sales and somehow came across startups
- joined a 5-person startup in canada as VP finance, literally working in the founders house, taking calls in the washrooms, just like HBO's silicon valley
- then joined a series A us-based insurtech startup but still in canada, leading finance, then promoted to also do operations
- after that, joined wrapbook around series A to as director of finance
- witness the company 13x in a year, helped raise series B, also built the entire data analytics function
- started to realize starting a company isn't impossible
- always thought you needed to be a genius like elon
- but after working with so many founders, realized the common pattern is just risk-tolerance and determination, which i think i'm very good at
- faced with the ultimate choice: do i want to 1) stay at wrapbook, best case scenario take it public become cfo and make something like $50 million? or 2) try my own thing for the next [5] years, not succeeding (yet) at all but i'm giving my 120%, making no money
- realized it was a simple choice: i would regret going with 1) when i die, but not 2)
- quit again without anything lined up
- did EF in toronto to look for a cofounder, but the ecosystem is so bad in canada
- applied to YC a week late, somehow got an interview
- was told i need to come back with either a co-founder or a product
- drive to various cities to meet with potential cofounders same day
- picked up programming courses (this was just before chatGPT launch)
- realized the best cofounder candidates, vcs, and customers are all based in SF
- convinced my wife to move to SF with me, she was hesitant but wanted to support me
- on Dec 31, 2022 5pm, we started our 5 day drive from toronto to SF, getting to our first stop at chicago by 2am on new years day
- by day 4, somewhere salt lake city, i got to interview with YC again
- presented them with a working prototype i coded in google sheets appscript
- 30 minutes later, got a call from yc partner "ok, we want to let you in, but batch starts in 2 days, are you willing to move from toronto?"
- my reponse: "jared, i've already left. GPS says i'll be there in 13 hours, i'll make it"
- got into YC
- went through demo day as a non-technical solo founder but ended up raising what an average round is
- hired a founding eng and founding designer
- heads down building for 2 years
- grew mostly organically from word-of-mouth and referrals
- started off with solving accounting for startups
- but realized the taxes space also sucked, and no one wanted to solve it as it's not a vc-fundable size
- but it could work really well for my gtm, and it's a founders top finance problem day 0
- studied over hundreds of hours to get a tax license, manually filed taxes for the first 100 customers
- became profitable, but not by intention
- fall 2025 founding engineer leaves, panicked as we don't have anyone to ship anymore
- forced myself to pick up cursor and ship
- forced my designer to also ship
- also sponsored ruby conferences and intensely recruited
- ended up hiring a founding eng anyway
- today team is 9 people with a few co-ops from waterloo
- ~1k customers, many have been using finta since day 1
- seen dozens of customers go on to raise series b/c+ and helped many get acquired by faang or the labs
- i ship 3-4k prs per month, still thinks i'm "non-technical"
- constantly changing the way we work because our tools are improving at a rate faster than we can use them
- feeling more motivated and determined than ever to solve the problems users face in accounting, taxes, and finances
