“i think making a startup is failing upwards” - vrinda gupta

backstory: worked at visa and launched chase sapphire reserve card but when personally applied for it got rejected

went on to do mba at haas and came up the the idea of sequin - a company that is constantly cloing the credit gap for women and other people who may not be able to engage with credit ‘efficiently’

  • sequin debit card builds credit and helps them with that
  • also benefits people with different spending habits and helps them build up credit

sequin went through yc of winter 21, and used program to find cto mark who was prev-paypal

personalities kinda like fireboy and watergirl, but its actually like firegirl and waterboy since vrinda is more ambitious and has a more lets do it attitude whereas mark is more calm and data-driven(?)

  • helps balance each other and decisions are balanced and thought through

demos are very good

  • valuation x10 after demo day

having a product and metrics are helpful when consulting vc’s

better to have less ‘baggage’ between co-founders, otherwise relationship ends up getting wierd