Investor Stories 430. Focus and Execution at Nubank, How Storytelling Wins Customers, and How Creative Partnerships Unlock Growth (Binatti, Madera, Okike)

This episode of TFR is brought to you by Ramp, the spend management platform we use here at TFR. They're offering listeners a $150 just to take a demo. We've never had an offer quite like this. Claim your $150 before this offer is gone at our partner link, ramp.com/partner/tfr. And this episode of TFR is brought to you by the American Arbitration Association, where smart startups and investors turn to for fast, efficient, and cost effective dispute resolution. Visit adr.org/tfr to learn more. Welcome to the podcast about venture capital, where investors and founders alike can learn how VCs make decisions and reach conviction. Your host is Nick Moran, and this is the full ratchet. Welcome Welcome back to TFR. On today's special segment, we ask guests to discuss the most visionary founder that they've worked with and what makes them so special. Here's the segment called visionary founders. On today's special segment, we have Daniella Benacci of Pismo. Daniella, if you had to choose one visionary founder or leader that has inspired you most, who is it, and what about their leadership approach resonates? I would say that Vivales, who launched NuBank here in Brazil. He like, we were worked with with them when they started. Actually, when NuBank started, they were working on the previous. So, like, they were relying on the previous platform processing that we built, and he was an extremely focused person. Like, when everybody there was a lot of critics around the incumbents and how something like that wouldn't, you know, wouldn't work in the long term, They, like, he was extremely focused on doing first one specific product and then the second one. So I think that discipline and focus is something that is extremely important because it's very hard to say no to opportunities that sometimes come like as investors, as we just discussed, but also sometimes as clients asking for things that were not necessarily what you were willing to do. So getting, you know, attached to your mission and what the vision that you built at the beginning, I think it's it's important to to to move on. On today's special segment, we have Paul Madera, cofounder and general partner at Meritek. Can you tell us about an exceptional founder that you've worked with and what specific thing they do that's unique to any other founder? Certainly. You actually mentioned the name DealerSocket early on. DealerSocket, I will tell you in many ways, was one of the most enjoyable investment experiences I had. And DealerSocket, which you have never heard of, was a, a software offering that was this must have been 2005, 2006. And it was a software offering that targeted retail auto dealers, who by the way, they are the toughest people in America to sell to for all the obvious reasons. And this team, which was made up of four BYU grads led by Jonathan Ord and Brad Perry, were one of many that were competing …